Super Mario Apocalypse: The Perfect World
by Ironfoot
Summary: When an older Iggy Koopa is given an ancient manuscript to decipher, he suddenly finds himself in a world of intrigue and deception, and realizes that his destiny was nothing like he had ever imagined. Prequel to Legend of the Three Kings.
1. 1

Since the simple days of the kidnappings of Princess Peach and the Mario Bros. coming to her rescue, things have changed quite dramatically. The continued contact with Earth has caused a radical transformation in the technology that was available during those times. Once primarily a medieval culture with pikes, full mail armor and bullet bill cannons, now a culture highly sophisticated and capable of space flight all within a span of a little more than 20 years. It is quite amazing how far every kingdom upon the Mushroom World has progressed, save for the Yoshi isles, a culture more preferable to traditional practices and the old ways of life.

But most of the rest of the world has moved on from those days. Modern technology like cars, planes and especially the internet has managed to snake its way across the world, forever changing the lives of each of its inhabitants. Perhaps the kingdom most changed by this technology was the Koopa Kingdom, being more open to this kind of change. The Koopa Kingdom's transformation was primarily in part due to not only Bowser's willing desires to make this happen, but mostly due to his 7 children, the "Koopalings" as they are often called.

As Iggy Koopa walked down one of the numerous hallways of Koopa Castle, he reflected back on the years of growth and death the Empire had in endure in order to arrive at its current state. Mostly, he was responsible for much of the bioengineering that has taken place to many of the Empire's troops and for developing radical new medicines to cure many ailments and injuries. He developed and hosted a number of things that would take hours to even write down on a pad of paper on in a Koopasoft Word document. But today was the kind of day when an important event takes precedence and all the major accomplishments of the past once again come back to the light.

Iggy was mostly thinking about how he played a large part in the redesigning of Koopa Castle. In many ways, it was so large that it could be termed a monstrosity in its own right. He was part of the castle planning commission along with his oldest sibling Ludwig Von Koopa and a host of other Koopa engineers from across the land. The task had been to build the grandest and most powerful castle that had even been constructed in the history of that race. Any reason or intention for such a power Iggy never understood beyond the boundless ego of his father, the so-called omnipotent King Bowser Koopa, but despite that he was very proud of his part. For the castle itself sprawled up over 50 floors into the sky, making it the largest and by far the tallest structure of its time. Iggy played a large part in engineering the structural capacity and the overall layout of the major industrial components, such as the insulation, piping, wiring and such. But the greatest parts of the new Koopa Castle, only recently 100% completed, were its 9 sprawling towers that rose up to 1,700 ft into the air. These immense structures were built for each of the Koopalings, including King Bowser's latest edition to the family, Bowser Jr. 8 towers were all placed in circular formation around the leading circumference of the castle, which was square by its own merits. The 9th tower, exclusively made for King Bowser himself, was placed in the center and was the largest and tallest of them all, climbing to a magnificent height of 2,350 ft into the air. It should be told that little news of the activities in that tower come into public notice, let alone to any of his offspring, and so it should be for many would not want to know.

Iggy Koopa certainly did not want to know. And yet as he walked past the countless windows that flanked him to his left, he could only wonder of the strange and odd activities that his majesty has been going through lately. Ever since the Koopalings got older (using human measurements of growth, into their early and mid 20's) and their responsibilities have increased, King Bowser seemed to have changed himself. The weekly dinners, where the entirety of the family would sit down at the same table for dinner to talk and discuss their latest activities, were being canceled recently, first with seemingly good intentions but later with ridiculous and hard to believe statements. The phrase "I'm out trying to capture Peach again" has now been used far too many times to hold any more merit, and there had been recent sightings of Peach within the castle walls themselves. Normally, Bowser would announce her arrival to his family, but that has not happened lately and more than a few people were beginning to suspect that he was not announcing this on purpose.

For what intention, Iggy did not know. All he knew was that the great move was today. Since the castle and its towers were completed, all of the Koopalings were permitted to move their belongings and personal possessions into their newly created towers. As a result, throughout most of the levels, there was a great coming and going with Koopa Troopas hauling great carts of goods and suitcases, anxiously wanting to hit the next elevator stop. Combining the so-called strategic planning of his siblings into one corrugated mess was the inevitable result and after having a taste of this earlier, Iggy decided to rest his worries about his chemistry equipment and try to enjoy what he helped create.

He rounded a corner and continued his rather slow pace, buried deeply within his thoughts. But he still noticed the smell of newly dried cement, a smell that seemed to permeate throughout the castle. It kept him at least somewhat focused on his material objectives, despite the fact that he wanted to simply unpack all of his belongings and get all of this over with. It had been a long time coming, and now Iggy was ready to throw in the towel and take a long rest.

He looked down through the windows to his left and saw the endless caravans of Koopa Troopa's marching across the many castle precipices many floors below. Many of them didn't work for more than 10 coins a day and Iggy wondered how Bowser ever managed to not only create such a concept with overwhelming approval, but how he managed to maintain such a concept without open scorn. It was well known in the inner circles that King Bowser very much disproved his 4th son Prince Iggy and neither tended to cooperate in most matters. Therefore, Iggy decided to just leave it as an afterthought, as he knew that he wouldn't be the one who would reform that system.

At length, there were a few shouts heard far below. Iggy looked and saw that he had been spotted. Well, considering his bright green mohawk and prominent round glasses, he shouldn't have been too terribly hard to spot in the first place. Returning back to reality for a moment, he promptly moved away from the window and continued on his trek towards his tower. He had enough publicity for one day.

Eventually, he reached the entrance to his tower and breathed a sigh of relief. His moment of relaxation did not last long however as he remembered he needed to pick up ancient Koopa manuscripts that were found in the Mushroom Kingdom recently. Being an obsessed archeologist in his free time, he knew he could not pass up a find such as this. A find like this usually came from one of the time periods when the Koopa Kingdom spread the globe. He walked inside and headed towards his warp pipe room.

* * *

Somewhere within the Mushroom Fields sat two bored mushrooms next to a warp pipe.

"What's taking him so long, Toad?" asked one officer, straightening his uniform.

"I don't know," Toad said lethargically, "All I know is that Bowser is remodeling his Keep for the hundredth millionth time, so his minions are probably working overtime. I'm not surprised this one is running late."

"And why didn't we just keep these things anyway?" the officer asked, eyeing the pile of manuscripts. "Who knows? Maybe we could use them against Bowser someday!"

"We have orders from high up to turn these over to Bowser as soon as possible. Besides, we can barely decipher what they say!"

The officer simply furrowed his eyebrows but said nothing else.

Moments later, Iggy emerged from the warp pipe and looked around, but saw nothing but green grass in every direction. "Mushrooms are always late," he mumbled to himself.

"No no, you're the one who's late!" came a voice, and Iggy looked down to find two mushrooms staring back at him. "Hey wait a minute, you look familiar! But I can't put my finger on it…"

"Iggy Koopa," Iggy proclaimed, adjusting his glasses.

Toad still looked confused. Then his face brightened up suddenly. "Oh yeah, you're that Koopa who took over…what was that place…Giant Land!"

Iggy thought for a second. "Oh yeah, Giant Land. That was almost 20 years ago, Toad. But anyway," he said, getting impatient, "The manuscripts."

"Yeah yeah," he muttered as the officer handed them over to Iggy. "We really don't know what it's about, other than the spheres representing-" The officer elbowed him in the stomach before he could finish. Iggy watched on with confusion as he heard rapid whispering, but he could only make out the word "protocol."

"Well anyways," Toad began again, "Hopefully you'll be able to decipher them."

"We'll see." Iggy commented as he went back into the Warp pipe.

* * *

"What was that for?" Toad shouted.

"Standard protocol, sir." Remarked the officer casually. They walked towards a bush, which contained a warp pipe. "I was ordered to…protect you."

"I can protect my self, you know." Toad was clearly getting angrier. The officer put a hand into his pocket.

"Looks like you cannot. Fortunately, the system was designed to protect you." With that, the officer jumped into a warp pipe before Toad could complain. Toad shook his head as he looked back at the warp pipe they were waiting at just a few moments ago. "It wasn't THAT bad..."

He closed his eyes for a moment to think about what just happened.

"Not good enough."

His eyes shot straight open to suddenly find himself within a high class restaurant, showered with sunlight from high-rise windows that overlooked the greater part of Mushroom City. Toad's gaze eventually made their way to the occupant of the chair opposite of him, who donned blue overalls, a red shirt and a hat of the same color.

"Mario-"

"Toad, listen," began Mario, putting his fork of Linguini down. "We all have a job to do. We all have our personal desires in this world. But you already have a world where everything can come true. All of your wildest dreams are fulfilled, everyone getting what they want, and yet," Mario paused as he slurped up his linguini. Toad put his head in his hand. "You always break the rules. And I'm sure you know the penalty for breaking the rules. I've been nice to you, Toad. You're one of my best friends, which is why I've been letting you go. But I cannot keep doing this forever." Mario paused again as he took another loud slurp of linguini. "Tell me, why do you do this?"

Toad continued to stare out the window at the commoners below. "Because I feel bad for them."

Mario looked at Toad with a grim face. "Then you are walking a very fine line. Just try to take care of yourself, OK?"

Toad simply nodded as he was surrounded by a beam of blue light and disappeared.


	2. 2

Iggy Koopa emerged from one of the many warp pipes in the Warp Room and walked within one of the many hallways of Bowser Castle. But as he turned down a corridor, he found himself face to face with his oldest brother, Ludwig Von Koopa, with a very impatient look. 

"Ah, you have arrived." He said, never losing his aristocratic bearing. "His majesty King Bowser has been anticipating your return. Evidently, he has been traversing the globe within the past few years searching for such a piece, but with no suck luck until now. Who would've thought the document would be hidden within the lands of our enemies?"

"Well," Iggy began, adjusting his glasses, "The Mushroom Kingdom back then was part of the Empire, so it doesn't surprise me at all that the manuscript was found there. We haven't been able to excavate within-"

"Of course Ignatius," Ludwig said, cutting him off. "You're the archeological expert. But unfortunately, our time is short as his majesty is greatly anticipating the manuscript's arrival. It is imperative that the document be handed over immediately, to ensure safe and rapid delivery." He stuck out his hand, waiting for Iggy to hand them over.

Iggy however, simply raised his eyebrow. "You do know that important documents such as these must be inspected by the Koopa Archeological Association before being presented to the Koopa King? We've found many frauds in the past-"

"I assure you," Ludwig reasoned, "That King Bowser has the logic to not ruin this fine piece of heritage. Although I will admit that a few treasures of the past could've been better...preserved." Ludwig cleared his throat. "Anyways, I believe it would be wise if these documents were to be delivered immediately. His majesty's impatience has run dry, therefore their delivery would ensure the lack of…problems." He gestured with his hand to hand them over.

Iggy, knowing how nosy his brother could be in his work, guessed his intentions. "Unless I receive a direct order from King Bowser himself, the manuscripts will not be delivered and will reside within the KAA as all other artifacts are."

Ludwig stood still, looking at Iggy curiously. Eventually, his arm fell to his side. "Very well then," he said, turning away. "Have it your way."

Iggy watched him walk back down the hallway. It was rare for King Bowser to be interested in ancient artifacts in the first place, let alone a simple manuscript. He suspected fowl play on Ludwig's part, but something in the back of Iggy's mind told him that Bowser's was indeed interested, and that he had sent Ludwig to retrieve it for him personally. But why him? Why not a random minion, like he always does?

Iggy looked down at his manuscript as more thoughts raced across his mind. He remembered Toad trying to explain it to him, then getting cut off. There was something about this piece that they didn't want him to know, Iggy thought. Realizing that he had little time to waste, Iggy bolted down the hallway towards the KAA Headquarters.

--

On the 24th story of Bowser's newly revamped castle lie the KAA Headquarters, full of ancient artifacts from ancient civilizations. Many Troopas walked to and fro examining objects, others recorded statistics for record purposes.

However, as the doors slammed open with KAA President Iggy Koopa running through the doors, everyone abruptly stopped their work. They watched as their president stopped for a second, looking around rather panicked. The secretary took this opportunity to approach him.

"Sir," she said, looking worriedly at him, "His Majesty has sent a dispatch to retrieve-"

"Where's the copy machine?" he hissed.

"O-over in the storage room, in the back c-corner, sir," she yelped. Iggy immediately headed to the back of the room, bypassing rows and rows of ancient texts until he reached a door. Opening it, he came face-to-face with the gigantic KAA warehouse, storing thousands of ancient artifacts. Running through even more isles, he finally made it to the back of the room, where he found the large copy machine sitting in the back right corner. He unrolled the manuscript and did the unthinkable, according to KAA guidelines, anyway. He laid the manuscript face down on the copier and selected the color option. Noticing he would need two pages to fit the whole manuscript, he quickly closed the cover and started to print one of the pages.

But as the first paper began to print, the manuscript suddenly flashed a dull green, nearly making Iggy fall backwards. As the first paper finished with a fading green glow, he heard a knocking on the door. "President Iggy!" It was the Secretary. "Messengers from King Bowser are here! They want something called the Doomsday Manuscript! Do you know if we even have that?"

Another green flash once again startled Iggy. "GAH!"

"Huh? What is it?"

"Just remembered I'm going to be late for an appointment…But let me see if I can find it…this doomsday manuscript."

Outside the door, the Secretary turned back to the messengers: two Koopatrols who looked more than annoyed. "Miss, we would appreciate it if you would step away from the doorway immediately. His majesty will not tolerate any further delay."

Just then, the door opened back up to reveal Iggy Koopa with the manuscript in his hand. "You must be the messengers." He handed it to them. "Here you go."

The Koopatrols took the manuscript with odd expressions. "Thank You," they managed to say, before the turned on their heels and marched out of the room.

Once they left, the secretary looked at Iggy. "What was that all about?"

Iggy sighed angrily. "Bowser wanted that thing before I could record it. I was trying to document it before he got his grubby hands on it."

"So you-"

Iggy shushed her to be quiet. "I know its malpractice, but you have to remember one thing: I'm the President."

"Yeah yeah," she huffed.

"Just don't say anything about it," Iggy asked, eyeing her. "This thing is a hot potato and I don't want word getting out."

"Alright." She muttered, more than used to keeping secrets by now.

--

Iggy walked out of Headquarters, shaking his head. While he was more than happy to get that manuscript off of his hands, he still had a lot of work to do on the copy that he managed to create. He looked at the leather briefcase he was carrying. At least it wasn't glowing green, he thought.

The koopaling walked over to one of the elevators in the hallway, anxious to get back to his room. As one of them opened, he mindlessly walked inside it, and as the doors closed he heard the sounds of a handheld device coming from his side. Turning, he found his brother Lemmy Koopa playing with a Nintendo DS. He wore a Hawaiian shirt over a white undershirt and as usual, his hair was a mess. Being an independent artist, he believed he had the right to dress as he saw fit.

"Go Magikarp! Use Splash Attack!" he shouted. "No! You failed…"

"Boredom setting in?" asked Iggy.

Lemmy looked over at Iggy. "Oh, hi Iggy. I'm just taking a break from my latest mosaic."

"The one with the entirety of Koopa City?"

Lemmy nodded. "God, the amount of detail is like, a shitload. It's not even counting our own castle either!"

"Yeah, that's a lot of work. Keep me informed on how it goes."

"Yeah…" Lemmy trailed off. The elevator finally stopped and the doors opened. Walking out of the elevator and leaving his brother behind, Iggy decided to retire to his room for the time being to rest and contemplate over what's been happening recently.

--

Most of the room was kept dark and quiet, with Piranha Plants sleeping in various pots along the wall, apparently undisturbed by the loud music busting through the room. Loud typing seemed to accompany it, all coming from the same location: a juggernaut of about a half a dozen computer screens and a blue Mohawk blocking the view. Sitting in his comfy seat was Larry Koopa, doing what he did best: hacking through the various networks of the Kingdom. There was a saying within circles of the Koopa family: "No one koops Larry Koopa. No one." Even Bowser one time had tried to trick Larry into the dungeon after spying over his cabinet meetings by setting up an ambush in the corridor, but Larry simply sent a mechakoopa version of himself fused with an explosive. Bowser decided not to mess with him after that.

Larry smirked at one of his screens. This screen showed the entire energy consumption of the Kingdom into several graphs.

"Hey man, its past peak again, right?"

Larry lazily looked at another screen, this one with about 8 different Koopa faces, all on webcam. "Yeah guys," Larry said, sarcastically. "They're being sloppy lately."

"Not even full capacity either, and those reactors are fully operational. You want me to take them down?"

"No." Larry ordered. "Nothing happens today, especially not after the manuscript."

"Oh riiiight! They finally found something. Too bad it'll never get out. But we all know what it says anyway."

"That's not the whole thing." Larry sighed. "Guys, my older brother Iggy has somehow made a photocopy of the manuscript. You know there are cameras all over that floor, and I saw that big green flash that Inauro loves to do. I bet he already knows what it says, and that's big news."

"Here we go." said one of the eight. "You knew this was gonna happen sooner or later."

Larry got up from his chair to his fridge. "I'm worried about him. I knew that he was going too far in this, but he has no idea."

There was silence. Larry sat back down and popped the bottle. Those faces on the screen looked real worried when he downed almost half the bottle in one go. Sighing, he moved his mouse around until he found one of his favorite programs: Grid Plus.

The silence was thick. Larry looked at the charts in front of him. It displayed the total energy consumption of the Koopa Kingdom, it didn't matter what energy source. The chief was lava, so he made sure to tack the pipes often. But thanks to Ludwig, new nuclear generators were set up, which really increased the potential that the Kingdom could offer.

Larry scratched his chin. Either they had failed to notice all this time, or…

"I have Grid Plus open right now." Said Larry. "And it's giving me this information that I'm trying to make sense of…" He trailed off as he clicked a tab which charted all energy flows out of Ludwig's generators. "And I just can't seem to make any sense of it." He ended sarcastically.

"What is it now?" said one of them.

"Well, here's the thing," Larry muttered. "I'm looking at one of these reactors right now. It says the total electrical output is about 1200 MW, ok?"

The faces nodded.

"If I add up all of the power flowing through every line coming out of the reactor, it says that the total power is 2500 MW."

"Holy shit."

"Larry, I know that they lie about their figures."

Larry nodded. "Me too. And I'm sure you want to know why so much power is needed, even though this kingdom will never need all of that excess energy."

"So…top secret project? You never know what Bowser is doing."

"Dude, Bowser doesn't even know what a nuclear reactor is."

As they bickered, Larry looked over at the clock. He had an appointment. "Well guys, its something to think about. I have to get going."

"See ya."

"Take care, man. We'll figure this out."

Larry pressed a button underneath his desk, prompting his entire computer set-up, screens and all to move behind the back wall. After the set-up was basked in darkness, the wall on either side closed up, as if nothing was there.

He stared at the wall for a minute. He had his own personal beliefs of what was going on, but of course he wasn't going to share that with anyone else.

Things have definitely changed since Bowser went lax on killing the Mario Brothers. His siblings have become more laid back and have taken up their own interests, mindless of the state or of their father. Larry in particular was free to do what he wanted, but the more he found out about his kingdom, the less he liked.

Seemingly on cue, his cell rang. Larry fished in his pocket for it. Caller ID was displayed coming from Ludwig's Cell phone. This was going to be interesting.

"Yes?"

"Her majesty has requested your presence."

Look how quickly she fit in with our little family, Larry thought. A title grows on people over time, but not without purpose.

"But of course." Larry replied as he heard a click on the other end.

He sighed as he walked to his door. The fact that Peach was being called 'her majesty' irked him a lot. Not that Peach was a horrible person, but Larry never trusted her and likely never will.

Larry closed the door behind him. He was met with loud metal music coming from the opposite door. The fact that both Larry and Roy got paired together was an unlikely coincidence. But the scene sparked an idea in Larry, amongst other ideas that he may find a use for later.

As he walked down the hallway, he was suddenly surrounded with a bright blue light which, after encircling him for a second, disappeared as quickly as it came. Blinking, he found himself in a totally different environment. This room was covered with lush carpets on both floors and walls, with the usual electrical torches lining the walls replaced with exotic chandeliers, all burning a different color flame.

Across from him on the back wall, Larry was aware of 3 people staring intently at him. Deciding to avoid their glares, he tried to make them out of his peripheral vision while looking at the other things in the room. He first saw his father King Bowser Koopa, laid out extravagantly upon a scarlet couch with various fruits laid out on his stomach. To his right was Peach, who looked at Larry intently, studying him. The last person sat not far from Bowser's head, underneath a makeshift carpet tent, seemingly trying to hide the massive bong within. The massive blue hair made it undeniable: Ludwig Von Koopa, seated rather comfortably on a plush fur seat, was enjoying his regular hits.

After inhaling the opium-filled hair, Larry lightly chuckled to himself. Their stares did not relent. He had put the pieces of the puzzle together months ago. He knew what it spelled out, but he didn't know why they were doing this. This was his invitation: it was now or never.

Larry finally glanced at Bowser. "Never gets old, does it?"

Bowser threw an apple into his mouth, but continued to stare at him with Peach following his gestures. However, Ludwig had broken his stare to take a few more puffs before resting the bong down on its pedestal. He then looked up at him again.

"Over a period of time, it turns into a habit." He said, which made Larry smirk. "Of course, we don't retriangulate everybody's position."

Bowser cleared his throat, glancing over at Ludwig with a very annoyed expression. Ludwig furrowed his eyebrows. "But unfortunately, I have a meeting with the Koopa Energy Board to discuss the improvement of fusion energy efficiency." Ludwig got up and headed towards a door behind him in the corner. "Also, to modify my 'Koopahari Concerto No. 5,' per her majesty's request."

Peach squealed with delight, but Bowser roared loudly, making Ludwig clearing his throat and closing the door behind him. With him gone, the two focused their attention back on Larry. Again, an uneasy silence followed.

"Peach!" Bowser roared. "Didn't you want to talk to him about your little…problem?"

"Oh, it wasn't all _that_ important!" she said. "I was just thinking about how I haven't seen Larry since…since…you had built that hotel chain-"

"That never happened." Larry said quickly. Bowser nodded, agreeing.

"Oh." Peach thought for a moment. "Then it must have been where the giant robotic animals invaded Jewelry Land. I remember when you used to pilot one of those things. You were so little then!"

After seeing Bowser's previous approval, Larry decided to take it a step further.

"I remember heading to the castle one time and hearing Peach's…screams of Lamentation."

Bowser's face twisted for a second, then he suddenly erupted with laughter. Peach elbowed him in the stomach, but that didn't stop him.

"Anyways," she said, looking slightly flustered, "I did have a small problem with my computer."

"Shoot."

"Well…" she began, "All of the numbers in my computer are off. Like, I'll check my account balance, but it always says that I have more than I actually have. And I know what I have, of course."

Larry nodded. He was too deep in this now to turn back.

"Yeah, it's something that's been popping up recently."

Peach smiled widely at his response. "Good! I hope it's not too much trouble if you could repair it for me then?"

"It's an easy job. Why not?"

"Oh! Wonderful! I'll make sure to send it to you tonight then." She said.

Before Larry could respond however, he once again found himself surrounded by that mysterious blue light.


	3. 3

The Borderlands: the stretch of dry land between the Mushroom Kingdom and Darkland. Rouges loved to roam these areas, but Toad didn't mind. One of his favorite resteraunts was in this place, and after seeing Mario's spaghetti slurp-o-rama, he decided to go for something less saucy.

Toad had made it to Fried Joes. Small name, but big meals with a cheap price. It was a popular destination for both sides, being in neutral territory. About two stories high and resting between the Cheep Cheep River and the Dry Dry Mountains, it was a wonder that its name hadn't reached the mainland Mushroom Kingdom, or the Koopa Kingdom for that matter.

"There are things better kept secret." Toad thought as he hopped out of his Mushroom Pickup. Mario had given him his ultimatum as far as his position was concerned in all of this. True, he could be leading a life like Mario or Luigi, but the simpleton within him refused to be a part of all that.

And as Toad stepped into Fried Joe's and looked across the endless number of koopa's and toad's alike, he realized that at least here, they could trust each other. Anything that went wrong with the place, the loyal customer base would almost always help to bring it back up again. It didn't matter who it was.

Unlike…

"Hi! Just one for today?" asked the waitress, interrupting his thoughts. Toad nodded and the waitress followed him to the Riverview section of the resteraunt, reserved for the higher class of the Mushroom World. Such celebrities like Yoshi or King Boo were not uncommon in this section. As he passively waved back to those who waved to him, he noticed Mouser give him a wink without so much of a smile. Toad returned the gesture and walked past.

They were in the same boat.

Given a seat in the corner, Toad thanked the waitress as she walked off. Sighing, Toad leaned back on the seat and tried to think about something else. He suddenly remembered his new Mushroom T100 Truck that he got. Larger than most other vehicles, he figured it would give him an advantage on the road because of his height. So far he was proven correct after accidentally throwing off other cars on the highway to Fried Joe's. Reaching all of the controls was still a problem, as well as getting into and out of the truck itself, but it was a fun vehicle to drive.

Toad chuckled to himself, but his chuckling soon stopped when he heard a dull rumble through the resteraunt. He looked outside and saw, unmistakably, two metallic doomships trying to find parking spots. The rumbling had also caused a shouting amongst his section.

"Damn Koopalings," muttered one. Toad looked and it sounded like it came from King Boo. "50 parking spots for one doomship is NOT what I call service!"

"So?" Toad said, speaking up. "I've said it so many times: give them their own parking spots!"

"Yeah?" Mouser stood up. "I wish it were that easy. You'd have to blow a gigantic hole in the Dry Dry Mountains for all of us to be satisfied."

"Why don't you go and do that then?" suggested Toad.

Mouser raised an eyebrow at him as the room fell silent, nodding their heads. "You know what?" he said, stepping out of his seat. "I think I will." And with that, he walked to the door, followed closely by bob-ombs and other demolition experts. Others cheered him on as he exited the resteraunt.

Toad sat back down in his seat, shaking his head. One problem solved, at least.

"Hi there!" A toad had walked over to his table. "My name's Tiffany Toad and I'll be your waitress today. What can I get you?"

"I'll start with dessert first." Toad said, opening the dessert menu. He usually got the same thing every time, but he always checked for new additions.

"Ok! What would you like?"

Toad closed the menu, but before he could say anything, a loud explosion ripped through the resteraunt. "Oh my! What's going on?" Tiffany said, balancing herself.

"Mouser is fixing the Koopaling problem," said Toad, and as if on cue, the doomships finally left their positions, headed towards the explosions. "But anyways, I would like the 3 footer, to start."

Tiffany gave him an odd look, however. "Yes, I KNOW it's ironic." Toad grumbled. "But it's my favorite dessert. Also, I'd like a Maple Ale with that as well."

"Alright." She said, noting it down and walking off. The rumbling had finally ceased and soon the Koopalings would enter. Toad could only imagine how things would go. It was the equivalent of someone like Peach entering the resteraunt. Royalty tended to do that.

"Here's your Maple Ale," Tiffany said, placing the large glass in front of him. "And your 3 footer." A large ice cream dish about 3 feet high was placed in the table along with a J-shaped spoon. She giggled. "Sorry Toad, I just think its funny imagining you eat that."

Toad smiled. "Don't worry, I get comments like that all the time. But hey, if you love something, you have to do everything you can to get it, right?"

Tiffany smiled back. "I hope you enjoy it." She then walked off to the next table, leaving an extra small Toad with an extra large sundae, sticking into the air like a sore thumb.

Toad's smile faded however when the Koopalings entered the resteraunt, followed by Mouser, who quickly made his back to his seat. "I like your thinking, buddy." he commented before sitting back down in his seat.

Toad simply nodded. He noted that the seat in front of him was empty. Toad continued to nod as he saw two Koopalings round the corner. The first he recognized as Roy Koopa, who hi-fived Mouser as he walked past his table. The second was Morton Koopa Jr., who was furiously talking into a cell phone. With both of them distracted, Toad hoped that by sinking in his seat, they'll just treat the 3 foot sundae nothing more than a curiosity.

Evidently, his plan had worked as neither of them noticed him as they sat down.

"What do you mean ratings are down?" Morton bellowed. "They are on the uptrend two weeks ago! That's no excuse for it to suddenly plunge 10...No, I think that's that new character, what's his name…Well whoever he is…Jack, that's right!" Roy let out a gruff as he looked through the menu's. "Kylie, that's the ONLY reason why I haven't ditched him yet. Wendy gets the same treatment too, you know. I have to work around the ratings to keep these people satisfied, so listen, I have an idea." Morton got out a notepad and pencil. "Figure out a way for Jack to get in some uptight situation, like a near-death experience or something. They'll be more focused on him, and I'll be damned if I DON'T get rid of him if ratings continue to plunge!" Morton paused. "No Kylie, you remember that I added him from that bet we took? That's all it was, didn't go beyond that…Haha! You know what? Wendy suggested the same thing, and I'm finding all of these interest groups on the Internet with the same opinion. If I DID add such a channel to Koopa TV…"

Toad thought he was getting a headache just listening to him. It was said that the Koopaling that has changed the most over the years was Morton. No longer a compulsive talker, he now put his energy into his new Koopa TV Corp, which was responsible for broadcasting every TV station within the Koopa Kingdom. His black suit and loose tie confirmed that, as well as his constant use of his cell. From what Toad knew of him, he kept 2 cells on him, one for business and the other for private use.

Roy had started to softly hum to himself. Morton looked at him annoyingly. "Yeah, alright Kylie. I'm at Fried Joe's, sacrificing my time talking with you…Oh yeah, I know its worth my time, as tonight will be…yeah, see you then." Morton, then by some miracle, stopped talking for a full 5 seconds as he put his cell away.

"You know what I'm gettin'"? Roy said. "Quarter pound Monty Mole, medium rare, topped with fire flowers." His tongue lapped his teeth as he thought of the delicacy.

Morton however, simply grunted. "Yeah yeah, well Kylie is an important associate of mine. While I have to regularly converse with many of my idiotic minions, I try not to spend too much time with them, otherwise they end up rubbing my elbow. I feel disgusted by the thought of it."

"You've had it, it sounds." Roy commented. "Had my fair share. Still do."

"Yeah well," Morton began, scratching his chin, "I don't mind the favors at all, really. But once you start thinking that they just want to get their ideas on the next episode of 'Who Kooped Ricky Koopa?', and then the whole 'coffee by noon, hotel by night' thing gets old. Course you could start demanding more out of them…better rooms perhaps, but Kylie's more than them for 2 reasons. First, she's my VP, so I guess I should talk to her, right?" He chuckled. "Second, she's so hot. She has this ability to appear out of fucking nowhere. Like, she appeared right behind me in my office when I was…"

"Yeah, alright Mort." grunted Roy. "Just get whateva you wanna get."

Morton muttered something to himself before opening up the menu. "You're right, I've talked enough about myself. So what's going on with you, lately? Heard pops got you a new job?"

"Ha! Yeah, new job alright." Roy smiled a toothy grin. "He made me second-in-command."

"WHHATTTT?" Morton looked very surprised. "What the hell?!"

"Don't ask me." Roy put his menu away. "He said that Ludwig threw in the towel. Told me I'm running the whole enchilada from now on." Roy then paused and looked thoughtful. "But Mort, that's my beef. Right there."

"How? You were made the second most powerful Koopa in the entire Kingdom! Why would anyone be pissed off?"

"Mort, listen to me good." Roy turned to face him, something he doesn't do unless he's dead serious. "Pops said Luddy quit, but he never said why. I asked him, but he waved me off. 'Not important,' he said. I tried calling Luddy but he's always busy."

"Yeah, I've been having that problem too. I always get his voice mail. Don't know what's up with that."

"Luddy's had that job since the Brothers came here." Roy paused, seemingly remembering those times. "People don't quit after 20 years for no god damn reason, and then shut off their cells so nobody talks to them. But it gets better." He leaned back in his seat. "When somebody leaves a job like that, they get a share of the forces. Now you know I got friends in the Troops…"

Morton nodded.

"And I always keep tabs on 'em. Some of them got portioned off to Luddy when he left. I thought, no biggie. Then, 5 days ago," He leaned on the table. "I lost contact with all of 'em. The entire squad disappeared overnight."

"What?" Morton was at a loss. "Maybe he relocated them…?"

"Couldn't find 'em on radar. I told pops about it, he said their Luddy's troops now, he can do whatever the hell he wants with them."

"Well," Morton explained. "That might just be it right there. He's the oldest, you know." At that moment, Morton's cell rang. Roy looked at him annoyed.

"Private call." He said, fishing out his second cell. "What?...Oh, hi Wendy. No, I'm having some lunch. I've been harassed by TV associates long enough…yes, some of it was sexual harassment, but hey, I'm the president and I don't give two-shits about company policy! Haha!...You too, huh? The way the world turns these days…"

"Hi!" A waitress had roamed to their seat. "I'm Sasha Toad. What can I get you?"

"Fink Lager." said Roy. "Monty Mole, medium rare. Fire Flower special."

"Ok, and how about you?" she asked, looking at Morton.

"Huh?" he chirped. "Oh, um…Goomba pastrami."

As they continuously talked, Toad couldn't help but feel lucky in his situation as they didn't seem to notice him. Taking in a big spoonful of ice cream, their latest conversation continued to course through his mind. While Toad had the inclination that these two Koopalings wouldn't be any problem, the idea of passing the word to the blue-haired genius seemed like a good idea. And normally, he would do such a thing.

But he felt uneasy. He had felt uneasy ever since he gave the Doomsday Manuscript to Iggy Koopa. Being briefed by Mario, he knew what the script was all about. Keeping a treasure like that could be used as a great weapon against Bowser in the future, but Mario didn't buy it.

And Toad never trusted Bowser, and never will.

Relaxing against his seat, he could only wonder of the future of the Koopalings. He knew that sometime in the future, after it's all said and done, they will play an important role in the outcome of this world...


	4. 4

The large wooden door opened with a long creak, revealing Iggy Koopa who briskly walked past the door as it closed behind him. He breathed in as he re-gathered himself in his new surroundings. His room was quite small, with a desk on the left wall near the entrance, with a bed to its right, lodged within a niche. On the right wall there was a simple computer set up on another desk. The back wall housed cathedral-shaped windows, draped with black satin.

After gathering himself, Iggy turned around and looked through his mail deposit on the back of his door. Grabbing the pile of letters, he walked towards to the right side of his bed, towards a large pillar that ran in the back corner of the room. It was amazing that no one found out about this yet, he thought. He kicked in a stone on the pillar touching the floor. After a hissing sound, Iggy reached up and pushed a stone on the wall next to him. With grinding and mechanical sounds, the stone pillar rotated to the right, revealing a spiral staircase winding upwards.

Walking up, Iggy soon reached another door at the top, this one much more futuristic looking. After a quick retinal scan, the door quickly opened, revealing an interior quite unlike most of the castle. The room was very modern and minimalist, with very few contrasting colors, or any colors for that matter. The walls were predominated by white, with silver beams crisscrossing the ceiling. White leather couches scattered the floor, with the biggest encircling a large glass table and facing a large sphere floating on top a pedestal: Iggy's own version of television.

Placing his briefcase on the glass table, he walked to his kitchen, where he grabbed himself a quick drink on the shelf. Even though he was underage, he had enough knowledge in chemistry to make his own alcohol. Of course, once knowledge of his practice went out, his siblings, mainly Roy and Wendy would ask him for a few favors. At the very least, Roy no longer beat him up.

Iggy walked back to the couch and promptly sat down. He stared at the wall in front of him for a few minutes.

Silence.

It was a commodity that he was losing. While the move was largely completed and that his room was constructed in secrecy before any of this happened, he still needed to supervise the "critter caravans," as Bowser called them, and move his chemistry supplies as well. That would take several days, as he had to move them to his new secret lab two floors under him without anyone noticing. At least they were the last things he needed to move over, he thought.

Taking a sip from his glass, he set it down along with his mail on the table and opened up his briefcase. Retrieving the manuscript inside, he taped them together and placed it on the table. Grabbing a special pair of bifocals from his pocket, he examined the script.

It was definitely nothing ordinary. In the center of the document was a large spherical object surrounded by ancient Koopa language from the late Koopa Empire. Around this large sphere were smaller spheres of various colors, seemingly dotted across the document at random. Iggy peered closer and raised his eyebrows when he realized that the spheres represented planets.

"I've heard stories…" Iggy said to himself. It was true that rumors persisted that the Koopa Empire had managed to map their solar system and its various planets, but no surviving evidence had been found…until now. Iggy, being fluent in ancient Koopa, began to read some of the inscriptions:

_Written for our descendants. After so much has been lost, it would be terrible to leave nothing for our future. Therefore, without words, we shall describe our history to you, whenever you're ready._

"Huh?" was the only thing Iggy could mutter. That made no sense at all. He looked for other inscriptions around the planet, but found only one other:

_This planet has been named many things throughout the ages. In the end, all names are forgotten._

"Huh…" Iggy lay back in the seat. What did that first inscription mean? It would've made more sense if it was the beginning of an historical document, but how would that explain history without words? "Well, I'm not getting answers out of that one." he thought. He focused on the other spheres surrounding the main planet, hoping he would find some clues.

The other spheres had many shades of color, including yellow, blue and red, with each having a short description next to them. Iggy felt his hope for an easy decryption dissipating. He read the inscription next to the red sphere.

_First of Eight._

Iggy blinked. Making sure that he read that right, he sighed and lay back on his seat again. "Ok, forget the main description for a second," he told himself. He looked across the inscription. Each sphere had its own color, not one being the same as the other. However, he did notice that there were 4 spheres on one page and 4 spheres on the other, leaving the main planet as the "9th sphere." After thinking for a second, Iggy took out a notebook and pen from his briefcase and easily translated the other descriptions around the spheres. With a definite set order, Iggy finished translating the 8th sphere when he suddenly noticed a yellow glow emanating from it.

Iggy breathed in. He had nearly forgotten that he was working with magic for a second. Curious, he passed his hand over it again, but it did not glow again. Biting his lip, he took the notepad from the table to read it, only to find another sphere to glow briefly before vanishing.

"Ok, what in the-" he began, but stopped as an idea so simple struck him. He held up his hands.

4 claws each.

He laughed. "I should've known." But his laughter died down as soon as another idea struck him, much harder this time.

"Wait, this is a portal?!" Frantically, he stood up and re-read the first passage. Without words. 8 spheres for 8 claws. It made perfect sense. What better way to preserve history than to make a portal to history itself?

Flexing his fingers, he knew it was tempting to try out the portal for himself, but the dangers of such a journey lingered in the back of his mind. What if he couldn't get back? Normally, a portal such as this one would leave a marker at the origination site.

Iggy then remembered the wand that was sheathed on his belt. "Come on Iggy, use your head," he muttered, taking the yellow-gemmed wand and silently said a few words before pointing the wand towards the center of the room. The wand flashed a brilliant yellow, and 5 feet in front of him stood a glowing pillar of light: his own marker for him to return, just in case. He knew he would be alright. He had been on many adventures in the past few years and returned fine through most of them, although there was something about this one that unsettled him.

Shrugging off the feeling, he placed his left set of fingers on the appropriate spheres. Once they all glowed, he repeated the same step for his right hand. The central planet began to glow a dark green, and its light soon encompassed the whole manuscript, not unlike his attempts within the warehouse earlier.

But before Iggy could react, the green hue quickly surrounded his body and his vision faded into darkness.

--

When his vision returned only a few moments later, he saw a vast field of green, with the sounds of commotion coming from one direction. Unlike Dark Land, with the sky in a perpetual red or black depending on time of day, the sky here was a dark blue, with a bright yellow sun shining directly overhead.

Iggy looked down to his feet and saw that the manuscript did indeed leave a marker for him to get back. Feeling more confident, he started to walk towards the direction of all the commotion.

Many minutes passed as he walked hill after hill of green grass. There didn't seem to be a sign of life anywhere, not even a goomba. As the noise began to grow much louder than before, he figured that they were all at some type of festival.

But as he thought to himself, Iggy suddenly remembered that King Bowser now had the original Doomsday Manuscript. There was no doubt that he would've been able to discover the portal as well. "No no, they're not celebrating his arrival." He told himself. It could be anything, but the thought of Bowser manipulating the past unnerved him greatly. Somehow, Iggy sensed a new mission for the Mario Brothers approaching quickly.

As Iggy climbed a rather large green hill, he finally saw the tops of low-rise buildings, sparkling in gold and precious gems come into view. He stopped awestruck as he beheld building after building running the course into the distance, with glitter and sparkles filling the air and above all, the roar of thousands of Koopa's cheering and talking amongst themselves. A faint music could be heard somewhere inside the city, nearly drowned out by everything else.

As Iggy continued to stare completely amazed, an elderly koopa wearing a white tunic approached him with a quizzed look.

"Erm…is there a reason why YOU aren't wearing your robes today, son?"

Iggy snapped out of his daze. He looked at the old Koopa, recognizing the ancient Koopa language. Fortunately, he was fluent in it due to his archeological studies over the years. If he wasn't, he wouldn't have visited in the first place.

"Me?"

"Yes son-"

"Oh, ignore pops." A small goomba quickly ran up to the two. "This is an incredible day, especially for King Inauro who will be absolutely delighted to meet another of King Bowser's children!"

Iggy gulped. This was not going very well.

"Yes Goomber, which is precisely why his majesty will need the robes!" Pops said. "He will need to stand out from the rest of the crowd, but not only that, but his royalty would only demand such fine taste and prestige!" He turned back to Iggy. "Don't you?"

"I demand many things," Iggy replied.

"Please your majesty; do not speak further without wearing the robes!" Pops turned back to Goomber. "I told you I had foreseen this event, and I told you the spare robes should've been kept!"

"Relax! I still have it here." With that, Goomber pulled out what appeared to be long black robe etched with golden symbols Iggy couldn't recognize at first. Regardless, Iggy took the robe and quickly put it on him.

"Marvelous!" pops remarked. "It will work perfectly for the meeting now taking place."

"What meeting?" asked Iggy.

"Oh, the one between your father Bowser and Emperor Inauro of course. Though I imagine Bowser means no harm to our people, I am highly skeptical of his…proposal for weapons trade." Sighing, he turned and sat down on the grass. "We first made contact with your older brother Ludwig Von Koopa, who told us all about you and your family, and your homeland, and the predicament your world now faces."

Iggy felt like he knew nothing about everything. "…predicament?"

Pops quickly turned to him. "You do not know the crisis your own world now faces?!" Iggy stared at him blankly. Pops looked at him with concern. "Goomber, leave us for a while." Goomber silently trotted off down the hill again. "Come, sit with me. By the sound of it, it will be the only information you will receive on the matter."

Iggy sat down, somewhat concerned. "I do know that something is being done behind my back. I got here using a copy of the original manuscript, which neither Ludwig nor Bowser liked very much for some reason."

Pops hummed to himself. "Upon his opening speech, Bowser had said that only a select few of your race knew of the upcoming danger to your world. To me, it sounds something along the lines of insider information and something which you or the rest of your family are not inclined to know."

"What is it?"

"He never said what it was. He did say that his son Ludwig was the first being on your planet to discover it."

"Discover what?"

"We do not know, but he has given us hints, hints that we're looking into at our library. He stated that this danger marked the 'end of our age,' as he put it."

Iggy was silent. He knew that term well. The age usually signified the time span of a glorious Koopa Kingdom within history, with some exceptions. The term itself is most famous applied to the end of Inauro's Koopa Empire, however.

"I especially loved the Emperor's response to this knowledge. 'For the public to remain ignorant, awash with the desires of the senses keeping them occupied from the ideas of revolution, the power behind the throne can push ahead with whatever agenda they may desire. Only the King's trusted may achieve in running the perfect world, a world with a populace completely submissive to the hand's whim, a world where each danger is never known until they're eradicated beforehand.'"

"Wow, I bet my father loved to hear that." Iggy replied sarcastically.

"He did, but in any case, it seems as though Bowser and his heir Ludwig are the only Koopa's to know the truth, although I'm sure there are others who may have guessed by now. You'll have to find the rest out for yourself."

Iggy stood back up. "That means I have to get into that meeting."

"They've been at the Emperor's Bath for several hours, and I doubt they will be finishing anytime soon."

"Thank you for your advice, pops…could you also do a favor for me?" asked Iggy, as he took off his robe.

"Anything, your majesty."

"Tell absolutely no-one that I'm here, alright?"

"Something that must be done, ordered or not."

"Thank you again." With that, Iggy started down the hill towards the city.

"Good luck," Pops called back. "You will need it."

--

The city streets were full of people. It was to the point of having trouble walking, which Iggy found out quickly as he entered it. Still, the amount of people gave him excellent cover from anybody who might have noticed him.

The meeting was being held at the Emperor's Bath, but he soon realized that he didn't ask Pops for directions. There was so much going through his mind after learning about Bowser's cover-up that he had difficulty thinking about anything else. "Focus," he told himself. He needed to figure out where this place was.

He stopped walking and examined his surroundings. Other than being surrounded by people, he seemed to be at a major street corner lined with stores on all sides. One sign read "Carline's Drought," located on the corner of a large intersection. Taking it to be a bar, he quickly hatched a plan and went inside.

Upon entering, he received a few odd stares which prompted him to take off his glasses. He quickly moved to a stool and sat down. It wasn't long until a young koopa girl no later than her 20's came over to him.

Her face suddenly turned to one of shock however. "Iggy Koopa!" she whispered. She leaned in closer. "You're not supposed to be here!"

"How in the…" he thought, but he decided to play it along for now. "I know I must be pretty famous by now," he whispered back at her, "But I need the directions to the Emperor's Bath. Now."

"You and most of your family are famous for being on Bowser's blacklist."

"Oh you're kidding me." Bowser was really pulling the strings now.

"Don't worry, Iggy. None of us are going to do that to you. He thinks he can just walk in here and do what he wants. I honestly don't know where his common sense is." She walked over to the tap, pouring him a glass and quickly slid it over to him. He promptly drank half the glass in one gulp.

"Take a left on this corner. It's the second block down. It's completely gated off and guarded though."

"Don't worry, I have it covered." Iggy reached into his pocket to pull out change, but the bartender shook her head.

"You're royalty, you don't pay a coin here."

"Nice treat," he said, smiling. "Thanks for everything."

"Anytime."

Iggy hopped down from his barstool and ignored the glares as he walked out of the bar. Putting his glasses back on, he turned left and rounded the corner, heading west. From his distance, he thought he could see a mist rising up into the sky somewhere on the other side of the road. He continued onward, but soon his thoughts began to connect the dots. The 'end of the age' was directly tied to the Doomsday Manuscript. If this was the case, then it made sense why Bowser didn't want him to investigate it. What concerned him more was the fact that the entire family was blacklisted from coming here except Bowser himself and apparently Ludwig. Iggy was disturbed by this order quite a bit.

Eventually, he made it to what was termed the Emperor's Bath, a large golden building surrounded by many fountains. However, the main attraction in the front square was the 30 ft Bowser statue sitting there, made out of solid gold. Iggy could only shake his head at the sight and wonder how Bowser got a hold of it. From what he could see, there were numerous guards guarding every passageway, but the crowds were so thick around the statue that he came up with an idea. Taking a hold of his wand yet trying to keep it out of sight, he muttered a spell to himself. After a few seconds, he completely disappeared from view: his invisibility spell had worked. While it only lasted around a half and hour, he hoped that it would be enough time to figure out what's going on.

The main gate was lined with Koopa's in full suit armor. Fortunately, most of them were occupied with keeping the populace from defacing the statue, so Iggy managed to slip by the line without anyone noticing. The only thing they would've been able to notice was his shadow, which was becoming more obscured as he made his way into the building.

As Iggy expected, the hallways were mostly deserted, with most Koopa's probably meeting with Inauro's descendant. The end of the main hall eventually split into two directions, but judging from the commotion that was getting louder, he guessed he had pretty much arrived. He took the left path but stopped abruptly as the right wall opened up.

To his right was a large circular room, with the floor about 2 feet deep in water and the ceiling open to the sky. The perimeter was lined with large pillars, which Iggy promptly hid behind once he saw who was in the room. Seated across the other side was a well-proportioned Koopa with bright green and yellow hair wearing a golden crown laced with silver. Most likely Emperor Inauro, he seemed to be deep in thought, as the subjects around him also remained silent. To his left was seated none other than King Bowser, who looked more than just a little impatient with his head in his hand. Next to Bowser was Ludwig von Koopa, who seemed to be conversing with the natives, who filled up the majority of the room itself. Most were quiet, seemingly waiting for Inauro to speak. Others talked amongst themselves however, and Iggy overheard one of their conversations.

"He's trying to get our weapons. Again."

The other laughed. "It won't happen."

"You think that Bowser statue outside was enough for him? Selfish."

"Shhh, he's stirring from his thought."

Sure enough, Inauro sat up, facing the crowd. Bowser looked up.

"If what King Bowser says is true," he said, "then his own people do not know what is about to befall them."

The crowd talked amongst themselves. Bowser, who clearly looked annoyed, stood up.

"So? Why do they need to know?" he argued. "Those pea-brains would riot in the streets if they found out the world was ending! They aren't smart enough to handle the truth!"

"Your people are your first responsibility as King," Said Inauro, "Which is why I refuse to give you the weapons necessary."

"WHAT??"

"Council dismissed." And with that, Inauro stood up and walked out of the room, followed by many of his servants. Bowser, left behind, looked as if he was about to explode.

"He's asking for it!"

"Father," said Ludwig, standing. "We have been able to gain a golden statue attributed to you. While this may be a _small_ setback, I suggest heading back to the Castle to reformulate our strategy."

"Hmph…" The two got out of the bath, but Bowser stopped quickly.

"Is there a problem?"

"Ludwig, did you hear anything about Iggy?"

Iggy gulped. He took a hold of his wand and prepared himself to teleport back.

"Our spies have yet to report his sighting within this realm."

Without saying anything else, Bowser stretched out his hand and with a finger snap, disappeared in a puff of purple smoke.

Once the smoke cleared, Ludwig retrieved his own wand, topped with a blue sapphire. As he raised the wand above his head and prepared to chant a spell, his wand started to blink a bright blue, catching Ludwig off guard.

"Someone is here," he muttered, lowering it. "Someone close."

Iggy realized that he had been compromised. Once he heard Ludwig chanting a new spell, he decided to take a gamble and chanted a counter-spell.

Sure enough, Ludwig looked disappointed once his wand stopped blinking. "Hmmm…" he stared at the floor in deep thought. After about a minute of this, his face turned into a wide smirk and he raised the wand above his head again. With a few words, Ludwig disappeared in a bright pillar of blue light.

Did Ludwig see him? Iggy didn't know, but once he was out of sight, Iggy knew he had to high tail it back to his room before they made it back. He had a lot of work to do, and he was thankful that he made a 2nd portal back. After a few moments, he muttered a few words and disappeared in a small flash of yellow light.


	5. 5

What an odd day it has been.

Not only was Lemmy Koopa near completion of his latest painting, which he thought was odd considering the amount of time he's spent on it, but most of the castle was dead silent once he left his room. Normally, there would be at least one or two guards roaming the hallways even in the dead of night, but all Lemmy could hear was the cackling of the electric torches on the walls. Lemmy smiled to himself as he continued to walk towards the courtyard. The technology was so horribly outdated in the castle. The rooms of his siblings had electrical lighting, internet access and widescreen televisions while the rest of the castle was stuck in the medieval ages of Koopa history, including full plate armor for the soldiers. Perhaps it was being respectful of the Kingdom's past history, but Lemmy couldn't help but wonder why things weren't changing. At least the food was upgraded tremendously, he thought.

Once he reached the courtyard, he stopped walking once he realized that most of the torches weren't lit at all, making the room near pitch black save for the high-rise windows giving a view of the nighttime sky, softly glowing red from the lava. Not a single guard was seen in the room, which was highly unusual. Normally, the troops would have training upon the eve of dusk, but they at least kept about 2-3 guards in the room. Lemmy knew something was up. He sat down on one of the plush chairs on the far wall as he fingered for his cell phone.

Bowser had felt it necessary to give each of his kids a cell phone to keep in contact with them, including Bowser Jr. even though he barely knew how to use it. Lemmy flipped open his to check his contact list to see who was available. He was surprised to find that everyone was marked as either offline or unavailable except for Wendy, who was marked as "Be right back." Normally at around this time, they would be having their weekly dinner together and people would be all over the castle. He heard his stomach growl at the thought of it.

Where was everybody?

Deciding to take his chances, Lemmy hopped off the chair and headed towards Wendy's room. Knowing her, she was probably there but watching some lousy soap opera or something, or talking to one of her boyfriends. Being a princess, she easily collected a list of "boyfriends" that she called from time to time.

Sure enough, as Lemmy arrived at her door, her voice could be heard talking away, albeit indecipherable. He pressed the doorbell. The chatter quickly died down and the door opened revealing Wendy trying to silence the other end of her phone.

"Is that Pete?" asked Lemmy, recognizing the voice.

Wendy nodded as she continued her assault. "No Pete, the chocolates you gave me were cherry and I HATE CHERRY!!!"

"She likes Raspberry!" shouted Lemmy, making Wendy give him an evil glare.

"No, you don't have to like, send another box over." She said, "In fact, you don't have to send me anything ever again." She hung up. "Another scratched off the list. I mean, how hard is it to find Mr. Perfect?"

"As hard as finding Mrs. Perfect." replied Lemmy.

"What are you talking about? She's right in front of you!" Wendy said, striking a pose. "Hey, why are you here anyway?"

"Because the dinner is tonight, but everybody's gone doing something or other."

"Ooooh, you didn't hear? Bowser canceled the dinner this week because of some like, important meeting or something. With the Transportation Committee or whatever you call them."

"Oh…" Lemmy was annoyed when his siblings didn't tell him these kinds of things. "Listen, I finished my masterpiece this afternoon-"

"Nice." Wendy's eyes went wide. 'Wait, was that the one that was like, the size of your wall?"

"Yeah. I finally finished it!" Lemmy reached into his pocket and pulled out what seemed to be a postcard of it. The painting spanned about 350 feet in length, covering an entire wall of his room. The painting itself was picture perfect, and looked as if it were real. In the foreground at the bottom of the painting was Koopa Castle itself, with 8 towers built within a circle, each for one Koopaling. In the center was a large tower built for Bowser himself. Despite the height of the towers, the city in the background was not blotted out, with its own towers failing on comparison to the massive size of the castle, with the glittering lights of its 42 floors adding to its gloriousness.

"Wow…" Wendy looked at the picture amazed. "I had no idea…"

Lemmy laughed. "Most people don't. Too busy to notice, but that's ok. Anyways, since dinner's canceled, I'm headed out to Belucci Koopa's and was wondering if you wanted to come along?"

Wendy thought for a moment. "Actually…I wouldn't mind that. You don't mind if I brought some friend's along, do you?"

Lemmy fumbled for his cell, smiling. "I don't mind at all…"

* * *

Crown Prince Ludwig Von Koopa found himself surrounded by elite Koopatrol personnel as he warped back to Koopa Castle. What were these idiots worried about...?

"We were worried about you, sir." said one, answering his thought. "Bowser has already retired to his throne."

"Do not be concerned about my well being," said Ludwig, walking down the corridor to the throne room. "For when it is all said and done, I will be fine in the end. I would worry about taking care of yourself and your family in the days to come."

The Koopatrol nodded. "Of course, sire. In the end, the Koopa Empire will be prosperous once again."

Ludwig said nothing as the Koopatrol squadron marched off down the hallway next to him. He continued walking down the straightaway, but with a second thought turned to the right down a very narrow passageway. He ran his claw along the edges of the stone until a small click was heard and in place of one of the stones was a small blue sapphire dispenser. He quickly replaced the gem on his wand with the new one and reran his claw along the wall, causing the dispenser to disappear.

Ludwig personally loved the dispenser system he had set up for his siblings. They were spread throughout random locations around the castle, specific for each sibling. They were ideal for a long siege, or from the simple size of the castle, they were just convenient to have. The gems typically lasted for about a month of constant use, which would be the perfect excuse for his delay, Ludwig thought. Speaking of which, he noticed a blinking in his pocket, so he took out the old sapphire and looked at it.

"I thought as much…" he said, trailing off. With his hand over it, he muttered a spell and the sapphire stopped blinking and went dead. Putting the stone back in his pocket, he was well aware of what the blinking meant. The problem was…

Ludwig approached the massive steel doors of the throne room. For some reason, his nervousness with meeting his father has dissolved as of late and he found his confidence increasing. Perhaps with all that's been happening, the plan would go through after all, he thought. Things were starting to look better for him as the days went by.

Thanks to Larry.

Ludwig pushed open one of the doors and saw his father King Bowser lounged on his throne, eating various fruits and chatting away with several Magikoopas. Next to it, a large, plush sofa was set up next to a large table filled with exotic soups and pastries, Ludwig's favorite foods. After looking at the setup, Ludwig knew that their strategy would have to be modified. He knew Bowser wasn't happy with Inauro's result and he's going to want an alternative when the time comes.

"Ludwig! Sit down and engorge yourself as we approach the final days! Hahaha!" he said with a mouthful of food.

Ludwig lay down on the sofa without saying a word. In truth, he was exhausted from running around with his father in the past few hours and appreciated whatever rest he could get. He reached over and sipped a yellow soup next to him.

"Guards," said Bowser, making a motion with his hand. At that moment, all of the guards and servants in the room walked out, leaving the two Koopa's alone.

"It looks as if we must rely upon our own technology from this point forward." said Ludwig.

"Obviously," said Bowser, "Even though it was a long shot…"

Ludwig gulped down one of his soups. "So, where will you place your recently acquired statue?"

"I was just thinking about that," said Bowser. He suddenly snapped his fingers. "In the Palace Courtyard! Perfect!"

"Hmmm..." Ludwig hummed to himself. "Are you that sure that not a single individual would question its authenticity?"

"Well, uh..." Bowser stammered. "Well you see, Koopa Mining Corp collapsed the Jungle Japes mine a few months ago and uh, they felt it would be better to suck up to their infinitely powerful King, me! So they sent me a golden statue of my glorious self to repay their debts! Hahahahaha!"

Ludwig said absolutely nothing.

"In any case," Bowser said, "The strategy will have to be changed thanks to Inauro not owing up to me."

"The intellect of the masses have been dumbed down sufficiently." said Ludwig. "We may not be needing the weapons when the time comes after all."

"They'll snap out of it," argued Bowser. "And we'll have to squash them. Remember the incident we had earlier?"

"Larry is far more intelligent than most, and is part of us now."

"Ludwig," said Bowser, "Never forget that I am the most intelligent Koopa in the Koopa Kingdom. Since I'm the king, I know exactly what will happen."

"Of course."

"And do not play me for a fool. I know Iggy has a copy of the manuscript."

"He does?" Ludwig said rather startled. This was most unfortunate news.

"Soon after I returned, I saw a yellow flash in Iggy's tower. That type of light is only seen on teleportation spells. He followed us and I know it."

There was a moment of silence. Ludwig slurped down the remnants of his 2nd bowl of soup. Bowser swallowed a dozen bananas in his hand down simultaneously.

"He cannot simply be exterminated now." said Ludwig. "However, if he remains within the current setting, there is a great chance the truth will be unveiled to the others."

"Indeed," muttered Bowser.

"Although, he is among the smartest of the Koopalings-"

"Ludwig," said Bowser, "One is enough. Two is pushing it, I didn't like it, but I had to keep the status quo. But three? Three is ridiculous!"

Ludwig had never liked the "one is enough" rule. If he had been a caring father, the entire family would've known long ago what was going on. It showed how much he cared about his 7 firstborn.

"Alright," said Bowser, apparently done thinking, "Capture him and hold him on the 8th dungeon level. We'll figure out what to do with him later." Bowser stood up from his throne. "But right now, I'm needed at Headquarters for another stupid meeting. I hate having short lunches!"

"At the very least," said Ludwig, "You'll have plenty of females to observe."

Bowser laughed. "That never gets old!" He left the room, with his servants re-entering to take care of the mess he left behind, in the form of various fruit juices and banana peels.

Ludwig sat up on the couch. Iggy's retrieval had been ordered, but he was not sure of Bowser's intentions. He honestly didn't want to know what they were in any case. If he was going to take the final step, it was going to be now.

Ludwig fished in his vest for his wireless communication device. He never properly gave it a name, despite it being an invention of his. Perhaps it was the fact that he never showed it to anyone. But in any case, he spun the dial in the center and looked through his vast list of contacts. Finding his desired pick, he dialed the address, and a holographic figure of a red Paratroopa appeared a few inches above the device.

"General Flutter," said Ludwig, "I must relinquish you of your current responsibility and ask of your help in a classified matter."


	6. 6

Located on the 21st floor of Bowser Castle was the largest Koopa Mart that lay within the borders of the Koopa Kingdom. With 33 aisles, the Mart housed some items not found anywhere else within the so-called Mushroom World. Bowser Jr. was always in awe whenever he entered the store. Perhaps it was the fact that the Mart itself was located within the walls of Bowser Castle itself. Only the denizens of the great Keep could shop there, being a privilege in its own right to buy such luxurious items.

Aisle 23 was one of the busiest aisles in the store, with nothing but alcoholic beverages. Junior had a hard time walking through it, but at the very least he blended in. It made it easy for him to grab a sixer without being noticed. While he wasn't old enough to drink, that of course didn't stop him from trying. But his victory in grabbing that Dry Bone's soon faded when he heard the loud chatter of two people in front of him. They were unmistakable. Junior looked and saw Roy and Morton with a big carriage filled with 12 packs and sixers. Junior was reluctant to talk to most of his brothers, as he wasn't very well liked within the family.

"Hey..." said Morton, looking own in Junior's basket, "Looks like the pipsqueak gave up on life."

"Yeah," muttered Junior, "I was going to waste myself, then jerk off to Big Bertha before passing out."

Roy and Morton looked at each other. The latter shrugged before asking "You mean you never like, socially interacted with her?"

"Of course not Morty," said Roy. "He's a closet homofag."

"But he drinks, so he's in." said Morton as Roy muttered to himself.

"In on what?" asked Junior.

"The real world." Both nodded and Roy crossed his arms. "Tonight. Koopahari Ruins. Starts at Twilight. Be ready for 6:30."

Junior shook his head. "Listen, I don't do drugs or any of that crap!"

"We don't either," replied Morton. "Only those losers on the lower levels do any of that shit, snorting it up, fucking themselves with glow sticks, retarded stuff. I don't think we're that retarded. But anyways, seeing someone who jerks it to Big Bertha and never meets her depresses me, so you're coming along." Roy nodded in agreement.

"Well...erm..." Junior stuttered. "Um...Ok, fine."

"That's da spirit!"

* * *

With a flash of yellow light, Iggy Koopa reemerged in his tower after a hectic journey through a part of his past history. Exhausted, he re-sheathed his wand and collapsed upon his couch, too tired to move. Visions of what he experienced passed through his mind like a blur as he stared blankly at his sphere-like TV in front of him. His eyes were open; the world was not as it seemed. It was just as Larry had warned for years.

Larry! Iggy suddenly remembered that Larry had wanted to talk to him about the manuscript. After fishing for his cell, he auto dialed Larry's number, but not before his stomach began to growl. He got up and headed to his kitchen, thinking about what to have.

"We're sorry, but this number is no longer available."

Iggy looked at his phone. To say this wasn't normal was obvious. Larry almost always knew what he was doing, but still...things have been very unsettling lately.

Listening to his stomach, he took out some of his instant macaroni & cheese from the freezer and nuked it. 30 seconds later, the microwave dinged. Retrieving his scorching meal, he sat on a bar stool and ate on the center island of his kitchen. Iggy engulfed it as fast as he could, at least to his tolerance of scorching food. After downing a glass of cold water, he curiously glanced at his answering machine. To his surprise, the little red light was slowly blinking, indicating messages. Iggy got up and walked over to it, pressing a button. The machine beeped as he listened in anticipation.

"Line 1, 2 messages."

"Hey Iggy, it's Larry. Yeah I know its been a while, and it seems you know a bit more than I do. Well, you've gotten closer to where I am. It's not far now."

Iggy paused the recording as he heard heavy footfalls of soldiers beneath him. As far as he knew, he did not order any squadron to his location. That meant only one thing.

He quickly unpaused it. "Listen, the knowledge that you have now does not go unnoticed. In time, either Bowser or Ludwig will nap you, like they did to me. Don't get too scared about it. Hell, you shouldn't be scared at this point. You know what's going on, and you're going to learn something even greater."

There was a pause. "They probably took everything by now, but...they couldn't have found it. I left you a key to our real history, your guide into the perfect world. Go into my room and look for the dresser next to my computer lab. On the top right hand drawer, you'll find the back of it to be a little loose. It's in there.

"Of course, if you turn back now, or decide to share this information with our siblings, the penalty is death. But you probably know that already, so the last thing I'll say is this: trust your intuition. I know it sounds stupid, but I think you'll be surprised. Good luck."

"Message received Friday, 5:12 PM."

"Greetings Ignatius. This is the first. I sincerely hope I'm not taking time from your schedule, but I have an urgent request. It seems that something amiss has occurred to Lawrence this afternoon. Whether by tragic affairs with our father or from another external circumstance, he has vacated the castle. Fortunately, I have managed to triangulate his current position and require your assistance in obtaining him. Please drop by my residence at your earliest convenience. I would advise arriving no later than sunrise, as transportation by evening and early morning hours would be the...ideal choice."

"Message received 5:59 PM."

Iggy rubbed his eyes. The footsteps were much louder now and it wouldn't be long before the soldiers would arrive. He tried to connect the dots in his head. More than likely, Bowser and/or Ludwig ordered his capture...which meant that he had indeed been compromised earlier. But what irked him more was Ludwig's invitation. It smelled like a trap.

In any case, Iggy knew that there was only one safe option. Taking his wand, he murmured a spell and made the Doomsday Manuscript dematerialize and flow into the yellow gem of his wand. After dealing with the evidence and deleting the messages from his answering machine, Iggy cast his more potent teleport spell and was gone from the room in mere seconds.

Moments later, troops burst through his door. Koopatrols, Magikoopas and Paratroops filed into the room with General Flutter appearing through the door last. He looked distressed.

"He was here just a moment ago," he muttered, looking at the empty bowl of Mac & Cheese in front of him.

"We're detecting an magic signature." said a Magikoopa, using his wand to search the room.

"You know what to do." said Flutter. The Magikoopa began to cast a spell.

* * *

Iggy successfully teleported into Larry's room and was shocked at what he found.

The room was completely bare, devoid of all furniture, electronics, computers, everything. His massive computer lab, which included over 8 computers with 16 servers, was completely gone. Even his famous plant collection was gone, replaced with only shadows and dust.

Iggy felt dismayed. The more and more he delved deeper into this, the angrier he got. Not to mention that Larry's departure went completely unannounced, but the fact that the agency who removed all his belongings in one day must have been one impressive agency. But the fact remained: the dresser that Larry had previously mentioned was no longer there. Thinking to himself, Iggy walked over to the former location of Larry's dresser, which was situated next to his former computer lab. He sighed. What would he do now? He had assumed that the key held all the information about this mess. He didn't feel secure without it. Plus, with the castle's troops out to capture him, Iggy knew that it wouldn't be long before they found him. His journey could not end like this.

As he walked away from the used-to-be dresser, he saw something that caught his eye. On the back wall, there was a very tiny outline of a square no more than 3 inches on either side. Iggy walked towards it and inspected it. He had always believed that no one could out-koop Larry Koopa. He hoped he was right. He stuck a few claws into the crevice and managed to pop the board out. The inside ran only 4 inches deep and housed what appeared to be a type of SD Card, which was about an inch long.

Before he could think about implementing the chip in his portable computer however, he heard the thumps and soldier's feet approach him, as well as what sounded like several chain chomps. "So, its a trap after all," he said. Putting the 3 inch board back into place, he though about what to do next. He decided it was too dangerous to warp back inside his room and tried to think of a different location, but there was a sudden knock on the door. Iggy froze.

"Larry Koopa, the Flutter Division would like to have a word with you."

* * *

Flutter and his troops waited behind Larry's door for a moment, but received no response. One of the Koopa Troopa's shook his head.

"I repeat, the Flutter division-"

"Break it down," intervened Flutter. The troops then cleared a pathway for a horizontal Thwomp who smashed into the door, ripping off its hinges with minimal effort. Flutter followed after the Thwomp's entrance and looked completely puzzled. The infantry looked shocked.

"W-what happened here?" asked one. "Did Larry move out?"

"I heard that he wasn't getting along with King Bowser lately."

"I did not receive orders for his vacation." said Flutter. "He did this on his own, but enough about him. Why isn't Iggy here?"

"We did not detect an exit signature." said a Magikoopa. "He did pass through this room a few moments ago."

"Look!" a Koopa Troopa said, pointing out the window.

* * *

Iggy didn't even look back as he bolted across the castle precipice. He knew that trap wasn't for him, but something else was going on. While Larry had his own problems to deal with, Iggy wondered if--

His thought was cut off when a magic blast hit the wall mere inches from him, throwing him forward. He looked behind him and saw several Magikoopa's advancing towards his position, followed by many other Koopa troops.

"Okay, maybe not." said Iggy as he dashed down the castle walls. He grabbed his yellow-gemmed wand and prepared to cast a spell as he ran, but in an instant, the ground broke from under him and something of immense size hurled him into the air.

Iggy recognized it as the reverse Thwomp, one of Bowser's newest enemies. Instead of slamming down on opponents, it launched upwards and slammed them into ceilings or off cliffs. But it didn't matter in either case. With his summoning complete as he fell through the air, Iggy pointed his wand at the Thwomp and watched as a yellow whirlwind transformed the Thwomp into nothing more than large chunks of rock. The advancing troops came to a standstill, trying to avoid the falling debris.

The blast however had caused Iggy to fly further than originally intended, and he soared past the end of the higher castle walls of Larry's portion of Koopa Castle towards the lower castle walls of, coincidentally, Ludwig's portion. Part of the elder Koopaling's portion of the castle ran alongside one of the many lava rivers in Dark Land, breeding an excessive host of hotheads, fire hurdles and many other such creatures.

Iggy managed to land on an empty platform on all fours with relatively little injury. Getting up, he realized that he was in Ludwig's territory now, and things were going to heat up soon, literally.

Avoiding the fiery lava river to his left, he began to platform his way across the wall, but he soon heard some shouting from behind him.

"I see him! Let's go around the other way."

"Shit." muttered Iggy, and he quickened his pace. From what he knew of Ludwig's territory, the lower walls were connected at both ends by the higher walls. But he also knew of some shortcuts on this level, if only he could--

"There he is!" shouted a voice in front of him about 50 feet. It was a Koopa dressed in blue armor, definitely one of Ludwig's troops. "The orders are to capture him on sight! Get him!"

About a dozen troops headed towards him as Iggy tried to think of what to do next. As he looked around, he noticed a faint blue light on the wall next to him. Pushing on it yielded nothing. Thinking, he again took out his wand and muttered a spell. As he expected, the wall faded away, revealing a narrow passage that led upwards. He quickly passed through and the wall reappeared behind him.

The blue armored Koopa reached his position moments later. "Oh, where did he go?" he muttered as he and his team searched for him.

"Nevermind him." came a voice on his intercom. "The Royal Guard of Bowser has been spotted advancing towards our territory. Head towards the southern line immediately to rendezvous with 3rd and 4th divisions."

The Koopa looked nervous, but regained his composure. "Roger that."

* * *

Iggy squeezed through the passageway, which was as narrow as his person. The more he advanced into his territory, the more he regretted ever heading to Larry's room in the first place. Yet, despite this, he felt like he was doing the right thing, but he couldn't explain it.

"How the hell am I doing the right thing?" he thought to himself as he climbed the ups and downs of the passage. "I've been a tool this entire time to accomplish their own ends." He shook his head. "I won't allow this to go on forever. When this is over, I have to make my own plan."

When this was over, when he figured out what was really going on, he was going to make his own initiative. He knew that Bowser hid many secrets from the people, but planning to subdue them for his own end was beyond Iggy's line.

The marching of soldier's feet above him interrupted Iggy's thoughts as he climbed to the top of the latest wall in the passage. Ludwig was getting serious now, and had apparently sent his alpha divisions to his own territory just to find him. Iggy knew that the only way out of his territory now were through the underground cavities. Larry's territory was off limits now, so his only chance was to head into Wendy's territory, Ludwig's other neighbor. At least he was on neutral terms with her.

He had just decided his plan when he ran into a problem: the passageway came to a dead end. On the ceiling was a manhole, one that was making noise as the soldier's metal boots stepped on it as they passed.

What was he going to do now?

Soon enough, the soldier's feet suddenly stopped. "Attention!" yelled one, and all boots simultaneously hit the ground, sounding like an earthquake to Iggy as he stood there, unmoving. Nothing happened for some time. Regaining some of his senses, he started to look for a possible secret way out.

"The most high, 14th Heir of the Great One, King Bowser Koopa has ordered the arrest of Prince Ignatius Koopa for violation of the sovereign code chapter 24, spying of confidential operations, and treason."

"Bullshit." he muttered as he angrily tried to find any openings in the wall. He backtracked a little, and much to his relief, found what he was looking for.

"We are well aware of the order," said a decorated Koopa, stepping forward from his division. "We have likewise begun a cease and desist order on all of Prince Ignatius's operations, domestic and international. We are handling the situation."

The black-armored Koopatrol did not look pleased. "Prince Ignatius has been tracked, by intelligence, to this location. This area will be searched by my division and swept clean from any possible...intrusions."

But before the Koopatrol could bark out orders, Ludwig's divisions suddenly readied their guns across the line.

"That is a direct violation of Section 42." said the decorated Koopa, preparing his gun. "Unless under Emergency Alert, no territory's troops may invade another's, including the Royal Guard, Elite Guard and the Grand Army. Cease and Desist immediately."

The Koopatrol hesitated for a moment, then turned his head and made a hand signal. The soldiers readied their guns and pointed them at Ludwig's divisions in front of them.

"Very well," said the Koopatrol. "Have it your way." His division opened fire, spraying bullet bills this way and that as the defenders ran for cover. Cannons on Ludwig's tower fired powerful laser shots that clean cut the ranks of the Royal Guard, weakening their position.

Flutter's troops stopped short after seeing the lasers in action.

"Retreat! Retreat!" he ordered, and his forces moved back the way they came.

And as Iggy emerged from a manhole at the other side of the tower, he knew that he came out at the right time. With both sides distracted, he had a chance at making it into Wendy's territory.

As he closed the manhole cover, he heard a beeping noise. Turning, he saw the manhole beeping with a blue light. He tried to figure out what that meant, but a tower door opened and Iggy quickly turned around. It was a Koopa, presumably a butler, dressed in a tuxedo and with an aristocratic expression.

"You're a tad late." he said, with a motion of his arm. "His majesty has been expecting your arrival for some time."

Quickly making a decision, Iggy walked inside the tower as the butler closed the door behind him.

"Please follow me, your majesty." said the butler, walking down the hallway. Iggy shook his head and tried to regain his senses. So, Ludwig wasn't his enemy after all? Then what was all that fighting about? To...protect him?

He wasn't sure anymore. But he was sure of his drowsiness, which made him realize that he had gotten no sleep since this entire adventure began. It had begun to take a toll on his thinking. Iggy scratched his head, suddenly feeling the effects of sleep deprivation. It was amazing how he didn't feel this earlier. He supposed that if someone was really immersed in something, bodily effects could be ignored.

The two came to the central courtyard of Ludwig's Tower, which housed a giant statue to the Crown Prince himself, carved from Bronze. It was about 2½ stories high, just below the ceiling of the third story, which was carved into the shape of a golden dome. The cross-shaped area was littered with Koopa's of all types, walking this way and that. The beauty of the courtyard however was drowned in sounds of battle cries and various types of weaponry, both metal and laser induced.

The butler turned to the right and walked towards the northeast. He stopped at a wall and placed a claw within one of the stone groves. Stones slid back, revealing a small elevator.

"This will take you directly to the E section. I do hope you enjoy your stay." He motioned Iggy to climb aboard. Iggy looked at the contraption a bit perplexed, then walked aboard. As soon as he did, the door shut and the elevator began to ascend.

Iggy leaned back on the wall. He began to wish that he never realized the last time that he slept. His body was feeling the affects, especially after his escape from Larry's room. His legs felt weaker with every passing second. A part of him wished he made that frozen steak dinner instead of the Mac and Cheese that he quickly prepared, but time was against him in that circumstance in any case.

He tried to think of his next plan, but with the combination of exhaustion and feelings of hunger, he was left with a dead intellectual mind and crucified logic. But there was one thing, one feeling that he was certain of, and that was about Ludwig. He knew he was saving his skin from Bowser in any case, despite the order for his arrest. But he didn't know why, and couldn't think of a reason.

The elevator doors finally opened, revealing a dimly lit corridor. He walked into it, seeing many other elevator doors lining the walls down to his right. But in front of him was a staircase that led upwards, and knowing that Ludwig's room was at the top of the tower, he followed up.

As he made his way up the staircase, the wall opened on the left to a beautiful panorama view of the night sky hovering over the castle below. On the surface, the firefight continued, but it was becoming clear that the Royal Guard was in a retreat, unable to handle the photon lasers that constantly bombarded them.

The stairwell curved up and to the right at this point, and ended at a balcony that overlooked the greater part of the evening sky, which was becoming increasingly red. A volcano must of erupted along the Koopahari chain, Iggy thought.

The other side of the balcony led to a set of 2 stainless steel doors, each adorned with the imprint of Ludwig's mug. Sighing, Iggy walked up to the door and stopped. In all honesty, Iggy expected anything from his oldest sibling. Anything from a firefight from the get go, to an evening with tea and crumpets, all the way to him not being there at all. As a result, he couldn't expect anything.

He knocked on the door.


	7. 7

The battle was mostly over now; the Royal Guard had mostly retreated and the 4th and 5th Divisions reestablished their lines of defense. But the opening of his doors stirred Ludwig from his thought as he turned to meet his visitor.

It was Iggy, who looked like he had run across the Mushroom World. His posture was also left to be desired, but considering the circumstances...

"Greetings, Ignatius." said Ludwig, walking from his window to meet his sibling. "I have been expecting your arrival for some time. Your delay is quite understandable, so please make yourself comfortable."

Iggy however, shot him a look. "Why should I?" he muttered irritably. "I came here to learn what's going on, not to have tea and biscuits as I'm wanted by the entirety of Bowser's army."

Ludwig smirked. "I believe you can trust me, because when I say make yourself comfortable, I mean it."

Iggy scoffed. "So, I don't have any other choice?"

"Not at this moment in time. I suggest relaxing. You can trust me, your person is quite safe and secure at this location...for the time being."

Iggy said nothing as he surveyed the room. It was circular in shape and poorly lit, with the only light coming from Ludwig's window at the other end, but many black and white curtains lined the outer sections of the room. In the center were a few leather sofas surrounding a large table which hosted food with delicious aromas.

Ludwig looked back at Iggy. "Ah yes, this room was one of many recently refurbished by Stayler and Co. I say the quality of their extensive work is top notch, especially to my standards of quality control and design."

Iggy finally walked to one of the sofas and collapsed on it, too tired to straighten himself out. He had so many questions. Where would be begin? Then he remembered the Doomsday Manuscript, the document that had started all of this. He especially remembered the old Koopa's when he traveled to Inauro's Koopa Empire. Was what he said...?

Ludwig took the sofa across from him and took one of the soups off the table. He ate quietly, but strangely did not say anything.

"What the hell is going on here..."

"Eat." said Ludwig, sounding more like an order. "And if you believe that I poison my own food, only Bowser does such things."

Iggy took a sandwich from the table and nibbled at it. It was turkey pastrami with swiss. After downing a glass of red wine in silence, he managed to sit up. He looked at Ludwig, who was still slurping away at his soup.

"What's the real purpose of the Doomsday Manuscript?" asked Iggy, not waiting any longer.

Ludwig looked at him. "The Doomsday Manuscript was written in the Age of Inauro to, essentially, preserve the age itself in the future by providing a means of time traveling to its current place in time. Specifically, it uses a High Elite white spell of time travel and decipher blood."

"Sorry..." muttered Iggy. He tried to think. "What I meant was, why did you want the manuscript so much?"

"Ah." Ludwig put down his soup and took a plate of wafers. "There are many wonders in the ancient world. I myself was interested in their more...luxurious devices, but his majesty tends to beeline towards the greatest destructive potential."

"Weapons?"

"You smoke?" Ludwig asked, holding out a cigar.

"Almost never."

"Its a Hoyo De Montoya, one of the finest cigars in this world."

"That's alright." replied Iggy, reaching for another glass. "What are the weapons for?"

Ludwig put the cigar back inside his pocket. "The bigger the paranoia, the bigger the weapons."

"What does that mean?" asked Iggy.

"It means precisely what I said." Ludwig pressed something under the cushion which set off a multitude of contraptions: a leg rest which propped up his feet, the arm rest to his right propping up and opening revealing a mini fridge, as well as the sofa itself starting to quietly hum as Ludwig laid back, very much enjoying his leg massage. Iggy could only raise his eyebrows at the spectacle.

"It's under your person." said Ludwig, pointing at Iggy's cushion. After feeling a bit, he pressed it and underwent the same routine. After this, there was silence for some time.

"There is much paranoia in this world, Ignatius." said the crown prince. "Most do not even know why they feel it, let alone understand why it exists. Most learn to cope with it, following their peers in a ritual of endless sensual pleasure."

"Oh, am I getting a philosophy lesson now?" mused Iggy.

"Well, you're not going anywhere outside of my domain for the time being, unless of course you desire arrest from Bowser's unruly subordinates, so I figured we could have a bit of a chat on things." replied Ludwig. "And besides, the very fact that I'm housing you as a guest here directly violates the 3rd amendment section 2. In other words, I'm taking great liberties in making sure that you are _not_ arrested."

"So you're going to try to convince me to hand over the manuscript again?" said Iggy. "Is this what all of this is about? I know you're in league with Bowser. I bet it wouldn't matter if I complied or not, I'll be arrested in the end."

Ludwig suddenly burst out laughing, making Iggy do a double-take. "What now?" he muttered.

"Your thought process is exactly the opposite of what reality really is. I don't want the Doomsday Manuscript. I really don't need it. The person who wants the manuscript is Bowser. I'm simply following orders."

"Uh-huh." Iggy started to wonder if a few shots of Brandy would boost his current state. He scanned the table, but didn't see much hard liquor around.

"To be honest, the only reason Bowser wants that particular manuscript is because he doesn't want you to know what's on it."

"A little too late on that one." sad Iggy, smirking.

"Then it seems our chat is about to get a lot longer," said Ludwig. "Do you want anything in particular in the meantime? I have most of the major brands..."

"I may as well have some Chortelloux before I'm executed for treason or other such nonsense. Seeing how expensive it is, you probably have it."

"Don't worry about that. At this rate, an execution is impossible." He got up and walked to a rather boring part of a wall that lay behind him. After seemingly pressing something nearby, much of the wall was suddenly thrown back revealing a very large collection of liquor bottles, even some steel kegs that were tucked away at the bottom.

"Wow..." Iggy murmured. "Didn't know you were a heavy drinker."

"Being the Crown Prince of the Koopa Kingdom means to have a very large amount of dubious responsibilities," said Ludwig. "And after listening to the world's most corrupt dictator day after day pronouncing his inarguable beliefs upon the nation and ordering his minions to do his bidding, it is natural to start a collection such as mine. Besides, the pay for being Crown Prince is quite extravagant. Oh, what's this?" Ludwig looked at a particular bottle. "I never finished it." he murmured to himself. "Here's a good place to."

"Finished what?" said Iggy.

"The best brandy in the world." Ludwig closed the wall and came back over to the table.

"Why am I not surprised?" said Iggy. "Aria Carant is one of the most expensive these days. They go for hundreds a bottle. Figures that you would have it."

"This particular one is aged 50 years." said Ludwig. "The retail value is around $2300 to $2500 a bottle or so."

"Jesus." Ludwig poured them both a glass. "I'm afraid we never finished this one from a few nights ago."

"We?" asked Iggy.

"Oh sorry, I was referring to the party that I hosted here. It was my turn and of course, I tend to bring out some of the best that I have, as far as drinks go. Ideally, it is perfectly appropriate to serve the best drinks for the best women you can find. Of course, Bowser's best woman is Peach, that itself is largely known. But she isn't a fan of my Brandy collection, sadly. She prefers vodka."

"Wha...?" Iggy narrowed his eyes. "You mean Peach was here?"

"Of course, she comes here regularly." said Ludwig. "She and Bowser are great partners after all."

Iggy lost his thought process for a moment and said nothing. Ludwig continued. "She's been coming here ever since Bowser tried to take control of the Galaxy of course. So for a few years now. She is indeed a very good friend of mine and she often brings some wonderful pies. I really like her apple strawberry pie especially, though I think she added something else to spice up the flavor in that one."

"What in the hell is going on?" Iggy said to himself. He looked at his glass of brandy and thought for a second that he had slipped into an alternate reality. While he didn't doubt the best brandy in the world, he knew he still had his senses.

"What do you mean?" asked Ludwig, seemingly clueless.

"Bowser kidnaps Peach as ransom for her Kingdom." said Iggy. "It's always been like that."

"Ah, those were the old days, the days where the divide between states still existed. That was before I discovered what was coming."

Iggy had a feeling he knew what Ludwig was talking about after what he discovered in Inauro's Kingdom, but he decided to play stupid until the very end. "What, a great geomagnetic storm?"

"Not quite." Ludwig looked toward the window. The sounds of battle were long gone, ended somewhere in their conversation. It was now very quiet, with the occasional gust of breeze on the curtains.

Ludwig downed a good portion of his brandy before setting the glass on the table. "Considering you've been into the past, you probably know what I'm talking about."

"Drat." Iggy thought to himself. He tried to think of something. He noticed that since the battle had long ceased outside, Ludwig definitely had something else in mind for him, otherwise the conversation would've ended long ago. While Iggy didn't completely trust him at this point, he decided to take the plunge.

"The end of the world I take it," replied Iggy, "And the best ways to counteract a rioting population from an event."

"In a way," said Ludwig, "But not entirely. Technically, this isn't going to be the end of the world by any means. The phrase refers to our current state of civilization and not the planet itself, although that too will be greatly effected."

"And what can cause an entire end of a civilization?" asked Iggy. "There are many possibilities, including disease, famine, earthquakes, volcano's, supervolcano's are a good reason."

"All of those are very real possibilities." Ludwig poured himself another glass and began drinking from it again before pausing.

"Right...so there's something greater than a super-volcano that's headed this way?" said Iggy. "A meteorite impact maybe?"

"Even bigger." said Ludwig. "I found this object a few years ago after Bowser's attempt to control the galaxy. It was when I was taking a well deserved break from my mechanical projects by studying astronomy. That was around the time when I spent much of my days inside the new observatory that I had built for myself.

At the time, I was cataloging the planets that were known in our current solar system and was even discovering new moons that accompanied them. As you can imagine, the Magikoopa's were ecstatic with all those finds and begged me to continue, so I did. Of course, I received much compensation for it, but that's besides the point. I believe it happened soon after I confirmed the existence of the 8th planet.

It was a late evening and I had been drinking a bottle of Sermen's...Gold Label I believe. I looked into the telescope for the first time that evening and was bombarded with the color of orange. I was a bit confused and first assumed that one of the lenses had gotten dirty. Therefore I took apart a good majority of the telescope and inspected the lens for any contamination but did not discover any. I thoroughly washed them in any case and reinstalled the lenses. But I was met with the same orange hue as before. I then had the inclination to zoom out and that was when I was baffled from what I saw.

It isn't a very well known legend, but it is known amongst the elderly scholars. I had heard of rumors of this object before from them but dismissed them, thinking that they were impossible. Oh how humbled I was when I came crawling back for answers, though I suppose it isn't my fault. Only a very wise mind can believe this without any direct proof of its existence. Fortunately, they agreed to help my predicament and I learned much of this objects past history with our race as well as its orbital pattern and rate of rotation. When I was ready, I presented the information to King Bowser and that was when all of this started."

"'When all of this started'?" said Iggy. "And why would something like a new planet be that big of a deal, anyways? Sure, it would make the news and would be heralded as a great discovery, but I obviously haven't heard anything about it until recently and I'm almost always told about these things. Why is this being covered up?"

Ludwig got up from his seat and walked towards the open window. He looked at the stars for several moments. "Why is this being covered up?" Ludwig said to himself, repeating the question. "That question has no one true answer to it. It's all very complicated."

"Then tell me the basics of it at least."

"Yes, you now have the right to know." Ludwig said quickly. "I cannot deny you that right, so I will give you a brief synopsis of the situation."

"Right?" Iggy mimicked.

"The main reason of the cover up is not because of you or me or for the rest of our family, although they do play a certain role within it. The main reason is the entire population of the world."

"What?!"

"In the past, it has been proven time and time again that when faced with a certain inescapable doom or calamity, when faced with that certain test of character, the general populace fails that test and loses all sense of conscious control over themselves. They become insane, they riot, they kill each other and themselves. Do you know why?"

"Uh..." Iggy was clearly thrown a curve ball. "They lose conscious control because their entire reality has fallen apart in such-"

"Not entirely." interrupted Ludwig. "The loss of conscious control is a byproduct of something else. That something else is a fundamental aspect of the common goer, and it is insecurity."

"What does this have to do with me?"

"Iggy," began Ludwig, "This has everything to do with you. You are upon the threshold of an entire reality that is invisible to most of the world's eyes. It's all for a good reason, it's because they also know what is going to occur."

"And the rest of the population doesn't deserve to know?!" Iggy shouted. "What are they going to do whenever this "thing" hits? I'm as clueless as they are! Do they dig themselves some caves in the mountains? Or maybe we should all build spaceships and fly into outer space until this "thing" passes?"

Ludwig smirked to himself and looked up at the stars again.

"You didn't even tell me what this thing is going to do yet!"

"Here is the easy answer to that inquiry." said Ludwig. "It will cause all of the symptoms you have guessed earlier, plus many more you are unaware of. Everything expected to occur within a pole shift will occur."

"A pole shift? Then why the hell are you covering this up?! You need to give them time to prepare!"

Ludwig shook his head. "You need to approach this from the mind of a governor than from the mind of a scientist, Iggy." Ludwig gradually walked back to the table. "Let's say that, for example, King Bowser announces that the world was in the path of a mighty planet which would cause earthquakes, floods, unexpected weather, every volcano within the past 10,000 years to erupt and more importantly, a pole shift which will rip this planets crust from the mantle and swing against the currents of the oceans, creating massive tsunami's as high as 60 feet that will inundate nearly every coastline on this planet. Do you think the population of the Koopa Kingdom, or the population of this world for that matter, will remain confident in their leader's ability to keep them safe during these events?" Ludwig sat back down and sipped from his glass. "And unfortunately, that wasn't just a simple example."

Iggy at this point took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. He stared down at his glass of brandy again. The life that he knew was gone 5 minutes ago and he knew it. Never mind his morals which told him to preach this information to the masses, as that was no longer an option. It was as if the curtain behind the world was unfurling before him to reveal something uglier than what he ever imagined. But he wondered.

"What I know now cannot be taken back." he said as a statement of fact.

"That is correct," said Ludwig, "As we've already gone too far into this."

"And this planet's orbit is in the way of our orbit," quietly said Iggy, "That can be the only reason why all of this is occurring. The two crusts of each planet are magnetically aligned...and the smaller one loses."

"The planet has been called The Great Destroyer over the ages, and with good reason."

"Yeah..." Iggy trailed off. It fit with what the old Koopa in the past had said. He was too stunned to protest any longer.

"I would tell you more of its history, but that would take several hours," said Ludwig, "And I have already made this chat longer than I had expected. And there's also the fact that you are now amongst the world behind the curtain."

"Great," said Iggy sarcastically. "I am so thrilled."

"Very few people are thrilled, Iggy. Just know you're not the only one that knows this information and wishes to tell the world to prepare."

"So why don't they? Oh let me guess, they are executed?"

Ludwig nodded sadly. "The very people we are trying to save are also our greatest threat. It's very paradoxical. Just know that if these commoners know what is to happen, civilization will collapse overnight. That is why they must never know."

"Well, I can't deny that," said Iggy, "But that doesn't stop this from being incredibly wrong." He sighed.

Ludwig took out his personal PDA and tapped a few times onto it.

"What are you doing?" asked Iggy.

"From this moment on, you will become a part of our group. Any person on this planet who knows this information has no choice to this matter, it is mandatory." Ludwig's PDA printed out what seemed to be a small credit card of some type. He handed it to Iggy. "Welcome to the Galaxy."

Iggy looked at it. On the top was the discreet logo of the Galaxy, which was simply the words with the backdrop of a galaxy behind it. Below this was written:

"Iggy Koopa

4th Prince of the Koopa Kingdom

President of the Koopa Archaeological Association

President of the Koopa Chemist Group

4th Chair, United Inventor's Board

--KOOPA DIVISION--"

On the back was a thin silver strip at the top of the card. Below this were the words: "IGGY KOOPA: LEVEL 4 AUTHORIZATION"

"Sounds like you have a secret society," said Iggy, "Or some type of fortress."

"You have no idea." said Ludwig. "But I'll fill you in on the details as we head to our ship, as we've stayed here long enough." Getting up, Ludwig walked to a corner of the room next to the open window and beckoned Iggy to join him. Thinking, Iggy put the card in his pocket, grabbed the Aria Carant bottle which had yet to be emptied and joined Ludwig.

"As standard procedure, anything that has occurred in this room never actually occurred." said Ludwig, fiddling with a device on the wall.

"Of course." said Iggy. "Oh, and I'm going to finish this bottle for you."

Ludwig looked at him for a moment. "Very well," he said pushing a few more keys.

"I just threw my old life away as it is," continued Iggy. "This will give me some sense of dignity, at least."

"In a way, you did." Ludwig pressed a large button and suddenly the floor jerked, eventually gave way and began to descend in a spiral-like fashion.

"You will still hold all of your old titles in the various organizations that you are enrolled in." said Ludwig. "And your participation will have little change, other than you knowing what is to occur. And yes, there are members even in the organizations you continue to go to that already know this information. However, it is forbidden to speak of this information outside of the Galaxy, with a few exceptions."

"What exactly is this "Galaxy?" said Iggy.

"It is as you said, both a secret society and a fortress." said Ludwig, smiling. "A fortress we are about to visit, in fact."

The pair descended into a very large and well-lit room akin to a garage of sorts. It was filled with very large concrete pillars about 120 ft in length as well as dozens of an assortment of machines, including what appeared to be flying cars, yachts and ships.

"Don't tell me you built all of these." muttered Iggy.

"Ok, I won't then."

"How much free time do you have?" said Iggy, rolling his eyes. "Jeez, I barely have enough time to build my own car sometimes."

"That will change beginning immediately." said Ludwig. "My vehicles were built by a small construction company that I created and maintain myself. I oversee the entire process to make sure those little minions don't make a single mistake. You can easily do that now as well."

"How??" asked a somewhat baffled Iggy, following Ludwig to the ship section of the dock. "There has to be over 30 ships here!"

"When you became a member of the Galaxy, you resigned from the current federal monetary system." said Ludwig. "In place of this, you joined the Galaxy system, which is not based upon any monetary system at all."

"Wait a minute...there's no money?"

Ludwig snapped his finger. "Precisely. It's definitely one of my favorite aspects. Basically, as long as you have that card or a Galaxy-issue PDA, you can buy anything you want at no cost to you. Think of it as an endless supply of blank checks." Smirking, he walked toward a ship coated in black paint with blue and silver highlights. "It's a perfectly understandable counterbalance upon knowing the most gruesome truth in the world, don't you think?"

Iggy frowned. "Hiding the pain with material aspects...I guess there isn't much else to do in that kind of scenario. We'll see what happens."

High up, the door to the ship opened from the top and moved down towards Ludwig, protruding from its top a long stretch of metal that stopped when it reached the floor. The metal than folded in upon itself, creating a staircase.

"Fancy." muttered Iggy as he and Ludwig walked up the staircase to the entrance of the ship.

"This is the Ludwig ZSX-1," said Ludwig. "It's my stealthiest ship. No radar in this world can detect it."

"You have a whole class of ships under your name?" said Iggy.

"Of course," he said, reaching the top of the staircase and entering the ship. "Every ship that I own is a Ludwig class. They're mine after all."

"Pfft." Iggy entered the ship. The silver and blue theme predominated the interior decorating with black leather sofa's lining the windows. In the far back was what seemed to be a small kitchen with a sink and two doors to other rooms.

Iggy followed Ludwig to the cockpit of the machine. It looked surprisingly simple, with only a couple of joysticks and a few screens and buttons.

"The ship usually runs on autopilot," said Ludwig. "And compensates when it's off course. The AI is very well designed, because while it learns from each mistake, it does not think on its own." Ludwig pressed a button on the center of the main joystick. Immediately, the ship powered on and one of the screens flashed with the words "Autopilot."

"May as well settle in for a while, it's a bit of a ride." said Ludwig, heading back to the main cabin with Iggy following him.

"10 minutes until departure to the Galaxy." said a voice on the intercom.

Before Iggy got a chance to sit down, he felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket. Remembering that he had silenced it nearly a day ago, it meant that whoever was calling was on his green list.

"Oh, that reminds me." said Ludwig, seeing Iggy dig his cell out of his pocket. "I have to make a call myself..." He walked back toward the cockpit, tapping onto his PDA.

Iggy looked at the front of his cell and saw it was from Penny Crygor. "Great..." he muttered. Penny and Iggy went way back, ever since the Inventor's Board was established. Though they were inherently friendly to each other, they were known constantly bicker at each other, albeit playfully.

"Yeah, I'm alive." said Iggy. "Unfortunately for you."

"Awww," she purred, "I thought you had finally died or something. Then I could take your seat on the Inventor's Board and introduce some ideas that are long overdue! Like the Free Energy Propulsion system that you keep delaying because of some miraculous discovery you found, or some other trash."

Iggy rolled his eyes. "That was a pretty important matter. I'm settling things behind the scenes right now."

"Oh right," she said, "You're royalty, so you're probably going to cover it up like you usually do."

"Actually, its not my choice this time, and I'll leave it at that."

"..."

"Why did you call?" asked Iggy.

"Oh right. I have a little problem with the upcoming meeting. Thing is, the first 3 chairs are not going to be coming."

"I guess that leaves me." frowned Iggy. "And at this rate, I wont be showing either."

"Oh, you're kidding me! How do you expect me to run the entire meeting by myself?"

Iggy laughed. "Says the one who plans on usurping my chair and taking credit for my ideas."

"Shut up! You were the one who took MY free energy idea, patented it and made a line cleaning machines for your little kingdom!"

"Nah, the singularity idea was entirely my own. That was a pretty interesting coincidence though."

"I don't think so. You and your ilk are all sneaky."

Iggy sighed. "Will you please remove that outdated paradigm from your cranium? That was when I was a stupid little kid. The only one that reeks of sneaky these days is Larry." Iggy wondered where the hell Larry was. Did he get caught up in this Galaxy program as well?

"You can't deny what's in your genes, Iggy."

"Yeah. If I were you, I'd cancel the meeting. Since the meeting can be canceled in the absence of the first 5 chairs, you can decide that since you're the 5th chair."

Penny sighed. "Yeah, I guess." There was a moment of silence. "There, it's canceled. So why couldn't you make it this time?"

"Classified."

"Is it some military project?"

"Classified."

"Maybe that hydraulic dam construction?"

"Classified."

"Or maybe...it had something to do with that new find of yours?"

Iggy looked towards the cockpit and saw Ludwig chatting away on his PDA. It was a little risky but he decided to take a gamble.

"Yes, and it led into a classified situation."

"Oh? Can you tell me where you are?"

Iggy knew where this was heading. He had already decided that the best way to take down an organization such as the Galaxy was to take it on from within. But he knew that he couldn't do it by himself. If Larry was caught up in this too, then he had at least one ally, but he couldn't confirm that. He knew that Penny would most likely keep herself out of trouble...after knowing what's going on, but Iggy still didn't feel too sure about that.

"I'm with Ludwig, but the exact location is classified."

"Interesting." It sounded like she was typing something. "He's been doing a lot of unannounced projects lately. Makes me wonder."

Iggy decided to go for it. "Are you really wondering or are you just curious? Because this is serious stuff."

"I don't know if I should get caught up in your royalty games, Iggy."

"It's not the royalty, it's...damn, I can't even tell you that." he muttered, rubbing his forehead. Exhaustion and the past few drinks were getting to him. Sleep was looking very nice right about now.

"You're making this sound like this is the mother of all conspiracies."

"It is. It technically doesn't even exist, and what I've said about it is complete rubbish."

There was silence on the other end. Finally, Penny sighed. "Are you in trouble?"

"No, the world is in trouble."

"Alright, most of the time, if someone said what you're saying, I'd call them a loony bin. But I guess if its coming from you...how do I get to this information?"

Iggy stared out the window and noticed the secondary thrusters were powered on already. "Go into the KAA server, into the /new/analysis directory. You know my password since you guessed it last week."

"Uh-huh. And?"

"Open the file . Print it out, it'll print in two pages, tape them together. Actually, you're human so you can't time travel to the past anyways."

"Time travel using paper? How does THAT work?"

"Its magic. Here's the important thing. As soon as you get onto that server, they will be watching your every move. That's how they'll find you. And when you're found, it wont be long before you'll meet up with me. But I recommend doing what they say until then."

"I have a question." asked Penny.

"Shoot."

"Is this connection secure?"

"My cell phone signal is always encrypted. The only person who could possibly crack it is Ludwig."

"Oh."

Iggy looked over at Ludwig and saw that he had stopped talking and was sitting very still with his PDA pressed against his head. He quickly realized what was going on. He felt grateful that he didn't entirely trust Ludwig from the start. He decided to throw him a few loops.

"This is quite the voyeuristic society, is it not?" asked Iggy. He thought he heard Ludwig say "Hm?" in response.

"Oh definitely." said Penny, apparently playing along. "Just the other day, I was talking to one of my friends on the phone and in the background was this quiet yet odd noise with a group of people talking in the background. I swore I heard one of them talk about how hot I was!"

"Speaking of which, do you hear something? Its a very faint but peculiar noise."

"I hear something, but I don't know what it is." This seemed to do it as Ludwig promptly hung up his PDA.

"They already found you," said Iggy. "It wont be long now."

"I know, I've been tapped for a while. I guess it was inevitable for me to come along, huh?"

Iggy saw Ludwig get up. "Got to go. And for what it's worth, I'm sorry. You'll know what I mean later." He hung up.

Ludwig promptly came out of the cockpit looking a little annoyed.

"I take it you had a bad phone call?" said Iggy.

Ludwig sat down on a chair diagonal to him. "Let me give you a word of advice. You may choose others to bequeath this knowledge to, but it is at your own peril. And we are always watching."

"Oh, so I take it you tapped into our little conversation?" asked Iggy.

"New members are never to be trusted, regardless of who they are. But in any case, potential members are almost always a part of several organizations here on this world before they are even considered. You are lucky in your case as Penny is already part of several and is also one of the top 5 chairs on the Inventor's Board. I have said it myself, that I've always wanted the top 5 chairs to become a part of the Galaxy, so I suppose I can forgive you this time."

Iggy looked at the Aria Carant on the floor. Taking it up, he took a large gulp out of it. "I'm going to be bored as hell if its just going to be me. And I also don't appreciate being watched with everything I do. Will you also spy on me if I decide to defecate in the bathroom?"

"I'm doing my job. It doesn't mean I adhere to it, but from past experience, it is for the better. But I do see your point." He sighed. "Very well, I will lift some of the restrictions off of you. Bowser probably won't be pleased, but I have enough proof to convince him otherwise."

There was a loud beep from the cockpit. "Finally, the engines are ready. I haven't used this ship in some time, so I had to let it go through a few diagnostic tests before flight. Now then, we can finally be on our way."

"Hey," said Iggy. "Is there a button on this sofa too?"

"Yes, it is also underneath your person." said Ludwig. Iggy felt around for it. Upon pressing it, the sofa threw up its legs and threw down its back simultaneously, making a bed of sorts. He took another sip from the bottle. It was clearly helping him fall asleep after what's happened that day.

"These sofa's are very well crafted," said Ludwig. "They were designed by Jean Foster himself specifically for this unit. They were primarily made for comfort for long hours at a time."

"That almost sounds...gay..."

"Excuse me, but Jean Foster is hardly gay."

"I meant the interior decorating...talk."

"A typical stereotype. Just because I excel at interior design does not mean that I am a homosexual. I excel at exterior design as well as metaphysical theory and application, astronomy, music theory and composition, robotics, industrial mechanics, plus many many others. I could talk about how the ZSX-1's secondary thrusters once failed to stabilize and misfired, which resulted in the ship spinning in circles for hours."

Iggy laughed his ass off at that comment. "Were you on that one?" he said amidst his laughs.

"Thankfully no. I had managed to hack into the radio transmission frequency that the ship used, so its stealth did not become an issue because I simply executed several commands at a terminal prompt, which resulted in the complete control of the ship from that single terminal prompt. I then slowly guided the ship into docking bay...22B I think it was, by firing the secondary thrusters in short bursts to make up for directional loss, plus the fact that I had deduced at that time which was that the secondary thrusters only misfired when they are fired at their normal automatic ship command, not from a manual command."

Ludwig looked at Iggy, but found him passed out on the sofa with the the bottle in his hand. Considering the day that he had been through, Ludwig wondered how he didn't pass out sooner. "Then again, I tend to ramble." he said to himself. But it didn't matter as much for him, as he still had plenty of time left. He thought about relaxing for a few and not rushing around for once.

After much delay, Ludwig finally went inside the cockpit and made the necessary preparations for departure. "Primary and secondary courses have been set." said the computer. "ZSX-1 is now set on auto pilot. Enjoy your flight, Ludwig."

Outside of the ship, one of the many docking bay doors opened and gave a green light for takeoff. Soon after, the main thrusters fired in the back of the ZSX-1 and the ship quickly took off from its location, blasting into the sky.

* * *

"Hey Lemmy, can I interrupt your boredom for a sec?"

Lemmy downed his second bottle of beer. Thank god he wasn't driving.

"No, you don't have my permission." Lemmy put his face on the bar table. "My boredom is precious to me..."

"Well," started Wendy, "My friend, like, wants to know what you do for a living. We know that you get easily bored, but that's it."

"Boredom is an experience, and the experience gives me the inspiration." he muttered. "But it is a boring experience." He suddenly jumped up. "But I paint, and do artistic stuff. I used to do theater, but...I think I lost the juice. Now I'm drawing the Koopa Kingdom from the perspective of my safe and secure room window."

"Oh," he said, remembering something as he opened his 3rd bottle. "I'm also President of the New Freedom. It's an organization that's sick of the corrupt fascist mess that my dad created. We're working to make a new society, actually we already have one, but its like a world within another world and not its own world. It's something like that."

"Wait, are you those gothic guys that are like, pulling people over and selling them weed to join their group?"

"Nah, those guys are fags." said Lemmy. "They have to beg for it. We don't beg, we're organized and we actually have our shit together. Meetings once a week and all that good stuff. Oh, and this is off the record, but we smoke weed there too."

"So you get your great, extraordinary visions of the future from the plants you smoke?"

Lemmy chuckled. "No, it's actually a legit desire of mine. I saw what Dad did to the world as it modernized, and we're not gonna survive the next few decades unless we do something soon." He sipped his beer. "I could talk about it, but it's depressing as hell."

"That's-" Wendy was interrupted by the airship theme which emanated from her cell phone. "Why does this ALWAYS happen when I'm talking to someone?" Sighing, she flipped it open. "Yeah?"

"Sis, I extend forth unto you an invitation of great honor."

"Nice try with the Big Wig impression Roy, but it needs work. It doesn't sound intellectually arrogant enough. Your accent is sort of in the way too."

"So you're sayin' you don't want to go to the Golden Koopa tonight?" asked Roy.

Wendy sighed. "No, I said you make a bad Ludwig. And why should I go there anyways? That place is wicked expensive."

"I'm payin' for all of ya. Ya I know, the selfish brute is throwing a bone to the dogs. But I've got somethin' to say."

"Why can't you just tell me right here?" asked Wendy.

"Cause I'd rather have all of ya in one location. Makes things easier. A LOT easier."

"Lets see, Roy is calling all of us and paying for all of our meals...that means that something big is going on." Wendy thought out loud.

"I'm callin' all who are...available. You two are da last."

"...Are you getting married or something?"

"You'll see. I'm gonna send you my coords', its not hard to find. We'll all meet upstairs and we'll all have a good time."

"I guess I don't have much of a choice, do I?" Lemmy looked up at her.

"Nope. See you then."

Wendy rolled her eyes. "Bye, Roy."


	8. 8

Roy hung up.

"So, are they going to join us or what?" asked Morton on the sofa across from him. The dull rumbling of the air yacht drowned out the otherwise uneasy silence. "Kylie already fell asleep on your second call."

Roy smirked. "It's cause you didn't give her the Cuerviere like I said you should." He snapped his finger and instantly two beautiful models walked out of a curtained doorway towards him. "See, mine are still awake. It's cause I can do the job. You under perform. You should work on that, bro."

"What?!" Morton said. "Haven't you heard of 'getting rest before the big event?' And besides, it'd be better if we were all here, anyway. There's no need to blow the first load on a yacht."

Roy hummed to himself. "You think Wendy would...?"

"God no," said Morton. "No one fits her sky high bill of ideals. Before any guy can get close to her, she'll be kicking him in the balls."

"Cause I heard a rumor," said Roy, "About Mouser recently."

Morton thought about it. "He is that kind of guy, but I'll tell you what. If that actually does happen and people figure it out, he'd be totally fucked. He'd have his own bombs exploding up his ass."

"And vice versa."

"Wendy is like that anyways. Her kids might as well get used to exploding as it is."

"Did someone say exploding?" came a voice off to the side. They looked and saw a half-asleep Kylie in a pink bathrobe seemingly eying the table of liquor between Roy and Morton. "I heard someone say exploding. Did Morton explode already?"

"Nope, not yet!" Morton proudly proclaimed, pouring himself a glass, "But it seems my days are numbered if you're going to the party dressed like that!"

"I'm not going to tell you what I'm going to wear." said Kylie, sitting next to him. "Because that will ruin everything. Heh, actually, I thought about dressing in a bikini and whoring myself in front of you earlier, but something stopped me."

"Good thing you changed your mind. My siblings are headed this way and I would've never heard the end of it!"

"I wouldn't have minded." grinned Roy.

"And Big Bertha would chew your ass for that." quipped Kylie.

Roy's face twisted into a knot at the sound of that name. "She chews on my ass anyways. She does what she's good at doing."

"Kinky." Kylie grabbed Morton's drink and downed about half the glass. "So we're going to the Golden Koopa, aren't we? Isn't that the place in the Koopahari Ruins?"

"Yeah." muttered Roy. "Even junior is gonna be there. He never fucked a porn star before and I felt kinda bad."

"Wow, you're awfully nice today, Roy."

"Heh, nah, I actually have to do this one. I have to talk about this."

"It's pretty serious, from what he's told me already." Morton said, laying back on the sofa. Roy snapped his finger and the ladies disappeared back behind the curtain where they came. He looked over his shoulder towards a radar-like screen.

"Good guess. We're here."

The long and narrow yacht successfully docked at the Golden Koopa air docks, which was connected with a portion of the eastern Koopahari ruins below. Being one of the largest and most expensive restaurants in the Koopa Kingdom, the Golden Koopa was a popular attraction for much of the upper class, but was also popular due to its political neutrality with the state, becoming a harbor for those who needed asylum. It was built 200 feet in the air over an ancient temple to the god of food and wine, and many explained its success due to that fact alone. Others thought it was because only those who owned air boats or yachts could dine in the highest sections of the restaurants, and many of these were officials in Bowser's cabinet who wanted to speak their mind. Many agreed that the best benefit was the total ban of press coverage. Many high profile koopa's could visit the establishment without having his face appear on TV on every visit.

Roy's personal yacht, a long and skinny boat colored in black and purple, docked at the highest level of the restaurant. After a ramp extended down to the walkway, the trio walked onto the semi-solid ground and made their way to one of the many doors on the upper level.

"Where is that brat?" Roy muttered to himself, scanning the docks for any sign of her. Amidst all of the people walking to and fro, he finally caught sight of her and Lemmy sitting on a bench facing the main complex.

"Oh look, he finally shows up." said Wendy, obviously annoyed. "You know, I had to tell my friend off for this and cancel an appointment."

"An appointment to go shopping, am I right?" gloated Morton, standing behind Roy.

"Yeah, with like 10 of my other friends." said Wendy. "But that's okay. One of the girls there kind of irritates me. And it's not like its some meeting with my fashion company."

The walked up a flight of stairs to the highest level of the complex. Several doors all lay in a row. Being the elite suite, usually the wealthy dined at these levels.

"You payed for a suite?" asked Wendy, just noticing the change in her environment.

"Yeah," said Roy, "I was made commander-in-chief. And you think I don't get a good payroll. I bought my yacht only a few days ago. It's worth 226,000."

"There goes Roy again." said Morton, with Roy smiling. "You know dude, I could gloat about how many mansions I currently own thanks to the zombie viewers that watch my Koopa TV soap opera garbage."

The 5 entered one of the doors and made their way down a black marble hallway.

"Marrying somebody in one of those shows is akin to marrying a zombie koopa to their television for at least 6 months. Let me tell you, their tears are made of gold. I mean literally, just on 9 Lives alone, I've had at least 25 million in sales on paraphernalia alone!"

They made their way into a large and spacious room. Besides that the room was covered in a black marble from ceiling to floor, pillars lined each end with golden bases and unreadable inscriptions etched into the columns. Waterfalls lined the right side of the room, flowing into an artificial river lined by trees and shrubbery that flowed out from the corner of the room. In the center lay a massive circular table in the shape of a half sphere. Niches were carved into the circle above the circumference and here the chairs were set up. The left side of the room had windows towards the ground that gave a spectacular view the rest of the restaurant below.

"There was another show, High Life I think it was...whoa." Morton stopped himself after catching the entire sight of the room. "Isn't this like elite class bro?"

"Damn straight." Roy said, walked to one of the chairs. "This is top of the line. Thought you might like it."

Morton whistled to himself before he and the others took their respective seats. There was silence for a moment.

"So uh, how do I order my meal?" asked Wendy, looking confused.

"Using the display in front of you." said Roy. "You just surf through the menu's and pick what you want, and they bring it up when its done."

Wendy proceeded to "menu surf" through the system's large selections and Kylie went ballistic over the fact that they had her favorite pizza on the menu. Morton muttered something about having too much too eat.

But Lemmy looked uninterested. With his head in his hand, he continuously stared at the trees next to river on the other side of the room. He had a very peculiar feeling, and he didn't like it. It wasn't the over abundance of extravagance, and it certainly wasn't the food. He had gone to the Golden Koopa a few times the past and thoroughly enjoyed their food. And despite his overall distaste of the overspending of wealth on trivialities, he enjoyed the atmosphere of the room and couldn't complain. But something kept drawing him back to the Yoshi's Isle incident that had occurred a week prior.

At length, Wendy noticed his apparent boredom. "You're not drunk yet Lem, so somethings going on."

"I can't shake this feeling...I don't like this."

"Hm?"

"Or maybe he is drunk and we just don't know it." remarked Kylie.

Lemmy sighed and swirled around to meet the rest of them. "Was thinking about those massive earthquakes last week. There was a string of them at Yoshi's Isle and the lower Mushroom Kingdom."

"Oh yeah..." Morton leaned back in his chair. "That was a headache. We had about 150 amateur callers telling us about this rumble and that smell. Then about who knows how many Yoshi's telling me yoshi this and yoshi that. They forget that their one worded language is a bit hard to understand. But yeah, that was a huge mess. 3 cities down there got leveled to the ground. They say it has something to do with whatever they call that volcano down there. Rumble Grumble? Blurp Slurp? I don't know. But they think the eruptions are triggering all of these quakes."

"Maybe for that region." said Lemmy. "But that doesn't explain the quakes in Diamond City. Or the quakes we've recorded in the Koopa Crags to the north of the castle. This stuff has been bothering me for a while, so I purchased a few toys for my organization and we've been keeping track of all this stuff."

"...and?"

"Well, there are 14 volcano's going off in the world right now, simultaneously."

"Really." said Roy. "My men told me that they detected 5 of them going off. Might be hazardous for our troops and we made shortcuts on some troop placements, but I didn't get 14."

"The military gets their information from the Koopa Earthquake Bureau. I called them after I found this out and they pretty much denied it."

Roy made a face, but Morton looked interested. "Can you prove that you found 14 of them going off at once?"

"Sure."

"Like, photos of them? Because if Roy doesn't know about it, that means only one thing."

"Yeah, I know. I'm not surprised at all, but still..." He trailed off and there was a moment of silence. "You going to air this?"

Morton sported a toothy grin. "You know me. I try to get through what I can. It's dangerous, but hey, it keeps the ratings up and I know people are always interested in what the government is hiding behind their backs. Just let me know when when you get them."

Roy fiddled with something in his pocket. "Heh, I thought this was gonna be a lot harder." He took out what appeared to be a USB drive and plugged it in next to his display. "But Lemmy took care of the introductions."

"Introductions?"

"It's the reason why I wanted to gather everyone today. I received a message from...someone we know about 12 hours ago. He's rather cryptic in his message, but what he says isn't pretty at all. A lot of it has to do with what Lemmy already talked about and I have to thank ya for that, it saves a lot of time. Much of it you shouldn't know at all. I shouldn't know it. But according to him, I should, so the rest of you should too."

He typed in a few keys before a large holographic display appeared in the center of the table. The words "VOICE ONLY" were visible, as well as the name of a file, called "3"

"Whoa." said Morton. "This is new. Is this one of the Big Wig's inventions?"

"You betcha." said Roy.

"Oh man, holographic football." said a voice. "That would be awesome."

Everyone turned and saw a familiar face walk into the room.

"Junior, you fucking cheapskate." grumbled Morton. "You're lucky you came in now, but you're way late."

"My bad." said Bowser Jr., taking a seat before noticing the holographic display. "All the traffic was backed up to this place and even the fast lane was slow on the highway, and I have a pass for that."

"Probably because Big Bertha's here." said Morton, before getting a nasty stare from Roy.

"Hey Roy, are you sure you want to let the kid know about this?" asked Wendy.

"Yeah. That's why he's here."

"How do I order food here?" asked Junior, prompting several sighs throughout the room.

"From the display in front of you." said Lemmy. "Pick whatever, Roy's paying for all of it."

"Okay."

"Alright, knowing that what happens here never happened, let's do this." said Roy. The lights dimmed around the room and Roy started the file.

"Greetings," said a voice. "Do I sound familiar, Roy? I should. I cannot say who I am, but that does not matter. You know who I am. My voice is instantly recognizable, and that is the identification. I could not identify myself here, even in a proxy transmission such as this. Security is tight, but not impossible."

"Larry." muttered Lemmy. Morton shushed him.

"You're probably wondering where I am," said Larry. "Unfortunately, that is classified and I cannot tell you without compromising my position. That would be bad, because I'm in a very good position right now. What I can tell you is that I am the whispering voice behind the curtain, and it would be wise to listen to what I have to say.

But I suppose I should update on my status first as you're probably wondering why I disappeared. Well, I'm happy to report that I am alive. I can breathe normally and I can walk. Basic things. And by the time you get this message and decode it, I'm still alive.

You probably noticed that all the furniture in my room was removed, including myself. It's not because I hate you or anything. It's because a new chapter opened up in my life and I was swept off to that place that no one dares speak of. Frankly, its not real. And neither is the Koopa Kingdom. Or the Mushroom Kingdom. Or the Yoshi Islands.

They are names. What do these names represent? Once upon a time, these names represented a singular organization or government and its populace. The people could confidently go about their daily, menial lives knowing full well that this so-and-so kingdom was going about its business in its intended fashion. They knew what was happening, they knew exactly what their leaders were doing. No scams, no bribes, nothing but pure honestly and love for their fellow koopa, mushroom, yoshi, whatever.

But today, what do these names represent? Things have spiraled far past the original intent of these names and its governments to the point where its all nothing but just a name. It's a name for a population that still believes in a principle of fair governance from a purely intuitive basis.

'Koopa Kingdom' is a name for a population of koopa's that live there. It is nothing more than that, and having been through what I've been through, I 100% agree. The name no longer represents the government. Because there are several. There is one thing that all of these 'names' have in common: they all have one very, VERY large government that takes precedence over the localized government.

Naturally, this heavily blurs the line between states. If all of the states are ruled by this same, large government, then why do these states still exist as sovereign entities? Why weren't there any announcement concerning this change?

There is a simple answer to that. This extremely large government that exerts its rule over nearly all states on this planet does not exist. And no, I'm not drinking anything. The place where I'm at doesn't exist either. That's the official policy. But that's pretty much the low-down of what's happening with the governing bodies of the world at least. There's a big one thats controlling all the little ones, but it also doesn't exist either so no one says anything about it.

I'd tell you more about this government. But to be honest, I've already used a lot of time just with that explanation so I'll just say this. You need to know something to become a part of it."

Roy paused the recording upon seeing a blinking red light on his screen. He pressed it, and immediately the lights came back on and two doors on the other end of the room opened. From them came several waitresses dressed in maid outfits, much to the liking of Roy. Lemmy felt several mental eyeballs roll in the backs of their heads at that moment.

"Brewmaster's Goomburger!" announced one. Morton raised his hand and the Goomburger was brought over to him, along with a bottle of beer.

"The Blooper Special!" announced another. Lemmy waved his hand and a rather large blooper surrounded by cheep cheeps was handed to him.

"Roasted Crab!" Wendy's hand went up almost immediately at the sound of it and the sidestepper entree went to her.

"Piranha and Nippers!" With the signal from Junior's outstretched hand, a large plate containing the head of a piranha plant with nippers on the side was given to him.

"Red Hot Wiggler Pizza!" Kylie held up her hand and the darkened remains of an angry wiggler were brought to her, mixed in tomato sauce.

"Last, but not least!" Roy smirked, waving his finger. The waiter brought over a dish that did not look anything Mario-esque whatsoever.

"Enjoy your meals!" the waiters said simultaneously before walking out of the room.

"Ahh, I haven't had pink nippers in a long time!" exclaimed Junior, but as he looked up, he noticed everyone's heads turned toward Roy.

At length, Wendy's patience ran out. "Do you mind explaining like, what that thing on your plate is?" she asked.

"This," Roy began, "THIS...is 100% certified Angus Beef."

Roy was met with a multitude of silent yet confused faces, soaking in his boastful announcement. At length, he sighed.

"It's steak."

"Steak?" asked Morton. "What's steak?"

"It's from Earth, well, Mario's Earth. Found it when Pops tried to invade it years ago." Roy snickered at the thought. "It's from some animal called a cow. It's pretty rare around here, but I love it."

"Oh. But it doesn't have beer on it." Morton took his bottle of beer and poured it all over the burger.

"This doesn't need beer to be good."

"Tch." Morton started devouring his meal. Everyone else was busy eating. A few moments passed.

"Aight, I'm starting this up again." said Roy, pushing a green light on his screen. The VOICE ONLY hologram once again appeared and the lights went dim again.

"You need to know something to become a part of it." said Larry. "That's the golden key into this society. There's really no other way. If they see you snooping around, they'll take note and decide if you're worth it, and that depends largely on what you're doing in your life, like what clubs you belong to, who you support, all that good stuff.

As you guessed, that's how I got in. I tend to snoop around where I shouldn't snoop around, but hey, I love what I do. I hardly changed after what happened to me, and that's how I was able to get this message out.

But now, the real reason I contacted you. Sorry for that long introduction, but as things fall apart around the would, and they WILL fall apart, it is necessary to avoid an increasing confusion as to how things are really run.

You've probably noticed the huge amount of earthquakes that have ravaged across the globe lately. Sure, many of them are associated with volcano's, but the volcano's themselves are erupting for the same exact reason. That reason is the way in, that's how you get into this network. Needless to say, the earthquakes are going to dramatically increase overtime. There's been a lot of tension between the crustal plates and this tension will only increase as well. Same reason.

Bowser will try to suppress this information as much as he can. Can't say how I got that intel. But this stuff rattles the citizens and he wants none of that. Where do I stand? Well, let's just say that if I stood by him, I wouldn't be telling you this. He probably wont tell you anything about these things. The less people know, the more secure the whole network is, so his thinking goes. The council seems to think so too.

But yeah, that's my message. Things are going to get worse as far as natural disasters are concerned. Things are going to happen that cannot be explained as well. I have no idea either, but since you're in a prominent position, I figured that it would be wise to let you know about this. What you do with this information is up to you, but just know that they are watching. I'd do it undercover, where you'll know no one will be peaking.

Good luck man. And if you get caught, you'll be up here with me."

The transmission ended and the hologram disappeared. The lights turned on, revealing several thoughtful faces, and a few faces stuffed with food.

"So, is Larry playing some kind of game?" asked Junior.

"Nope." said Roy, sipping on his brandy.

"Nah, I can tell when he's playing something." said Lemmy. "This isn't it. He's pretty damn serious."

As Lemmy finished speaking, he felt something he really didn't want to feel at that moment: a small tremor beneath his feet. Earlier, he thought he had felt a smaller tremor during Larry's recorded speech, but he thought he was imagining things. "Ah shit, I don't wanna feel that."

"You felt that too?" asked Morton. His reply was not met by words but by a far more powerful tremor that seemingly shook the entire building.

Roy bolted from his seat. "We're outta here."

The rest all got up from their chairs and headed for the exit, but a particularly powerful tremor shook the Golden Koopa at that moment. Part of the ceiling cracked and crumbled and many stones fell within the hallway that led to the exit. Roy managed to dodge most of them and cross the other side, but the others were not as lucky and the hallway became filled with rocks to the brim.

"The exit's blocked!" shouted Morton.

"Go around the building, use the doors on the other side!" said Roy. The tremors stopped for a second, but the building itself started to sway back and forth. Seeing this, Roy began to run towards the exit. A few moments passed before another tremor occurred and the building quickly jolted to the far left with a tremendous noise, hitting Roy against the wall.

Somewhere behind him came the sound of crashing glass. He thought he heard people calling for Lemmy, but the noise was getting too deafening. The whole thing was very ironic, not only with Larry talking about this very danger, but Lemmy was as well, just before the recording. Roy would've never have expected an earthquake of this magnitude in the downtown capital of the Koopa Kingdom. To say that he was surprised would be an understatement, but he never showed it.

At length, after dodging debris and cracks in the floor, Roy finally made it to the double-door entrance. Bursting the doors open, he made his way out onto the docks and was met with a massive number of people running this way and that, trying to flee the insanity.

The Golden Koopa restaurant itself seemed to be slowly swaying back and forth due to the earthquake that struck downtown. Hundreds of people were flocking out of the restaurant, both on the ground level and on the air dock levels. Most available docked ships were being overrun by the mobs, trying to get to safety. Roy fought against the crazy mobs by shoving many out of his way. He made his way towards his ship, which was being guarded by Koopatrols against the crazy mob.

"Sir!" one of the Koopatrols spotted Roy, and helped him through the mob and onto the other side of the Koopatrol defensive line. "An Earthquake hit 3 miles from here. We started the civilian evacuation process."

"Tell all private and public vessels to take in civilians." said Roy, despite knowing what was happening already. "All military here is coming with me."

"Sir!" the Koopatrol saluted and talked into his hand held radio. Roy ran towards the entrance to his yacht but stopped abruptly at the sound of a large explosion. Turning, he looked downtown and was baffled by what he saw.

The KoopaTV tower, a 1500 ft tall 130 story building, had lost its foundation and was collapsing, luckily falling away from the other major skyscrapers. Explosions rocked the upper floors and Roy thought he saw a bluish blur near the top levels before the building crashed to the ground. Many other buildings had imploded and collapsed, and many dust clouds filled the air. The true extent of the damage could not be seen.

Roy boarded the yacht along with several dozen soldiers that had dined at the restaurant. Seeing the distressed public, many of the soldiers instructed them to board the ships on the other side of the dock, where Wendy's pink yacht could clearly be seen.

As Roy's yacht launched, Roy looked over at Wendy's yacht and thought he saw Lemmy climbing aboard the pink yacht followed by a multitude of people. Once again surprised, he flipped open his phone and gave him a quick call.

"How'd you get out?"

"Dude, I know martial arts!" said Lemmy with a bunch of noise in the background.

"Well, get outta there. She's gonna fall. And what happened to Morty and the others?"

"I don't know, man! I fell through the window back in that room and ran out here. Now I got a million people wanting to ride with me."

The Earth trembled once again, and finally the Golden Koopa couldn't sustain itself. With several groans, many of its foundational supports were ripped loose and it began to tumble towards the ground. Roy immediately put his cell away and drove the yacht away from the falling colossus as fast as he could. Lemmy himself finally drove Wendy's yacht away from the restaurant with dozens of people trying to jump from the docks towards the yacht, with many missing their target.

With a deafening crash, the 200 foot tall Golden Koopa smashed to the ground, billowing up a large cloud of smoke, debris and fire.

* * *

With the meeting canceled and many of the lesser members not showing up, Penny Crygor locked up the doors to the Inventor's Hall in Koopa City and wondered how she would spend the rest of her evening. She was excited to propose her free energy module as a solution on relying on fossil fuels, but for some reason the idea never seemed to get the light of day, due to x circumstance and y accident. She was aware of Ludwig's warning to her about the fossil fuel companies not liking her idea and she knew it was going to be an uphill battle, but she knew that it was people like her that kept up the progression in society, even if it flew into the faces of a few greedy men.

She walked to her motorcycle, parked inside a small parking garage not far from the entrance to the Inventor's Hall. Colored in black with pink hearts all over it, it's been said by Iggy to "perfectly fit her personality." That only served to reminder her of Iggy's new singularity engine proposal, which she thought was too close to her own free energy idea.

Penny unzipped her bag attached to the back of her bike. She unzipped her jacket revealing a black bike suit adorned with pink hearts, matching the pattern on her bike. Taking off her pants and pink boots, she placed her clothes inside the bag, pulled out a pair of leather boots and quickly strapped them on.

Standing back up, she sighed and enjoyed the feeling of freedom. Riding her bike to these things was quickly becoming more enjoyable than sing her old hover car. Something kept bugging her at the back of her mind, however. "What did Iggy mean when he said 'I'm sorry?'" she thought to herself. She had a feeling that it had something to do with the piece of knowledge that Iggy refused to talk about. Was getting into this thing really that regrettable? Regardless, Penny had known Iggy for a long time, and knew that if Iggy wanted her to know this, then it must be pretty important.

She suddenly thought of something. She fished for her shirt in the bike bag and dug into its pockets. She pulled out a printed copy of the Doomsday Manuscript taped together.

She had deduced that the 4 circles on each side fit with the fingers of the indigenous koopa. Iggy was right on the fact it was only meant to be used by members of the royal house. But she had recalled earlier seeing a very faint outline on either side of the document in very faint light.

The sun had long set in the Koopa Kingdom and the stars laid spread out across the sky. Taking advantage of this, Penny held up the document to the stars. After a moment, the outline appeared again, seemingly two rounded curves near the edges of the document. Between these curves, a faint orange color appeared.

"Strange." Penny muttered to herself. She didn't know what that meant, but her thought process was cut off by a large tremor beneath her feet.

"An earthquake?!" She quickly placed the map back in her bag and zipped it up. Placing her helmet on her head, she started up her bike and zoomed down the road. More tremors greeted her and she struggled to stay on the road.

In the distance, she saw many of the large buildings in downtown Koopa City swaying back and forth. As far as she could remember, only 1 or 2 earthquakes have hit this area since the time the Koopa's had started to record earthquakes. Penny wondered if it had something to do...

A fissure suddenly cracked open in front of her, with the land seemingly rising up. The front wheel of her bike hit the fissure and the bike flew forward, launching Penny from her seat. She flew in the air for a few moments before hitting the ground many feet away.

Regaining consciousness for a moment, she pressed a few buttons on her wrist and a red light started to blink. "Is this what he...no..." were her last words before darkness overtook her.

* * *

Many ships were able to escape the Golden Koopa carnage, but they chaotically flew in seemingly every direction. It certainly shouldn't come as any surprise, for besides the restaurant itself, the greater part of Koopa City was in ruin and total chaos, which soon became apparent to Roy. Several skyscrapers had fallen, with KoopaTV being one of them. Other large buildings had collapsed upon themselves. Fissures in the ground had opened up all over the city, making travel extremely difficult. The worst part, in Roy's mind, was the growing discontent and and insanity that was beginning to take hold in the population. While many of the citizens seemed to be helping others from the aftermath of the Earthquake which appeared to be finally over, small crowds were beginning to form on the ground below, and Roy even saw one such crowd raid a package store.

Roy snapped his finger and a Koopatrol was immediately by his side.

"We're goin' to headquarters." said Roy. "And we're gonna start to fix this mess. But for now...disperse the crowds, and if they get violent, match 'em."

"Sir!" replied the solider, and he marched off. After a few moments, Roy cell was ringing.

"Yeah?"

There was no response. Roy looked at the phone screen and realized that they were GPS coordinates. After seeing the sender of the coordinates, he quickly walked over to his pilot.

"Head .8 km southwest of the Golden Koopa...or what was, anyway."

"Why?" the pilot asked, somewhat confused. "There's nothing out there!"

"I got a signal. Morty's out there."

The pilot nodded, and the yacht changed course and headed towards Morton's announced location. After picking up a glass of water, Roy walked over to his lieutenant.

"Received a SOS. Send another ship to board who's here and head back to HQ. I'll take the call."

The lieutenant saluted and immediately started issuing orders to his subordinates.

Roy sat down on one of the couches and tried to steady his head in a crazy and hectic environment. A thought crossed his mind then.

"Guess ol' Bertha didn't make it." he mused to himself. That was certainly a desirable outcome. If the truth had ever gotten out between him and Bertha, Roy would never hear the end of it. At the very least, Morton and his fiance Kylie kept it all a secret. He knew that if Bowser ever figured it out, Roy would lose his position in a heartbeat. Meddling with any criminal element in the world was intolerable in the military.

Roy laid back against the couch and stared up at the stars in the sky. He knew it was going to be a long night and he wondered what he should drink to keep him out through the crisis. He also wondered where the hell Larry was. He was spot on about the earthquakes, that was for sure. But Roy could only wonder how Larry knew about what was going to happen in the first place.


	9. 9

"Sir, I'm sorry to disturb your rest, but you have a visitor."

Groaning to himself, Wario rolled over to the phone next to his bed. If there's one thing he hated, it was getting woken up in the middle of the night because of trivial things.

"What do you want?!" said Wario, clearly peeved.

"You have a visitor at the front gate. He claims that it is time for you to go."

"Go where?"

"He says that you would know."

Wario rubbed his forehead and looked at Mona, who was still sound asleep next to him. For a split second, he thought about asking his butler if the visitor was female or not, but considering the nature of the business, he quickly tossed it aside.

"Fine, I'll be down there in 5." The intercom fizzled off.

Pushing aside the fur blankets, Wario climbed out of bed and grabbed his bathrobe, which unsurprisingly had a large W on its front and back. He grabbed the PDA from the counter and placed it in his robe pocket. Opening the large oak doors as quietly as he could, he slipped out and made his way down the hallway and inevitably to the castle courtyard. He was pleased to see that his servants had actually done what they were told. On the bottom floor lay boxes that were filled with a portion of his treasures that he planned to bring up with him once his visit was up. But with an early visitor such as this one, something in the back of his mind told him that it would soon be over.

Walking to the massive front doors of the castle, Wario pressed a button on the wall and the doors opened automatically. On the other side was a toad with sunglasses looking at his watch. Behind him was a black limo, hovering above the ground.

"There you are. A member of the Galaxy had requested your presence some time ago and wanted to me to inform you personally."

"Geez, can't it wait? It's 2 in the morning!"

"Did you check your PDA? A message should have been sent to it regarding the meeting."

Wario muttered something to himself as he pulled out his PDA ad turned it on. Sure enough, a new message blinked on the screen:

MEETING WITH DR. CRYGOR REQUESTED

ROOM W89-822

COMMENTS: Penny joined the brigade.

"Wha?!" Wario looked rather startled. He did not expect Penny to join the Galaxy so quickly. Through a request by the Inventor's Board, it was agreed upon by the council to have the first 5 chairs join the Galaxy through a slow process of acquisition. But the suddenness of Penny's arrival disturbed Wario. She was not due for arrival for another couple of months. Then again, she could've found out herself.

"Eh...I can see what the doc is getting at..." he muttered under his breathe. "Alright alright, I'll go!"

"Wario, are you going on another adventure?" said a voice from behind. Wario turned and saw Mona in the doorway with a large white fur blanket on her shoulders. However, they largely failed to cover up the rest of her body. The toad gulped at the sight.

"Heh heh...Crygor wants to talk. You should come along, it'll be a long stay."

"L-like that...?" stammered the toad, unable to divert his gaze from Mona's chest.

"Of course, you numbskull! Don't you have a pair of balls?!"

"I don't see what the big deal is." said Mona, shrugging. "We've made out in the back seat a million times with...almost no problems. There was that time with the driver wanting to join in."

"Oh yeah, he's dead. Hahaha!" said Wario. "Hey, do you mind if we make out in the back seat again? Cause I had a long flight back here and..." He chuckled.

"You don't even have to ask..."

"I know, I was talking to the ball-less driver of ours...heh heh."

But the driver was stammering and couldn't bring himself under control. Mona shook her head at the sight. At length, she wrapped the blanket around herself. This seemed to do the trick as the toad instantly controlled himself.

"We should leave now." he quickly said before climbing into the driver's seat of the limo. The back door of the limo then opened and Wario and Mona quickly got in and sat down on the purple leather seats. Even at 2 in the morning, Wario relished the sight at seeing his emblem emblazoned over everything. The floor had a rather large yellow W amongst a purple backdrop. Each of the individual seats had the emblem in the backrests. Even the wine glasses were stained with the great yellow W. Wario smiled at the sight as he poured a bottle for Mona, who looked ready to fall asleep again.

After handing her a glass, the limo rose up off the ground and slowly started forward into the night.

"You know," said Mona, drinking the whole glass, "If I expose myself while he's driving, we might crash to the ground and lose a life."

"Not if I'm all over you..." Wario moved in front of her and kissed her. It wasn't long before the poor toad noticed the blanket on the floor, as well as Wario's overly obese buttcrack.

"My god, somebody help me." he whispered to himself as the limo haphazardly flew into the evening sky.

* * *

The bar was luxurious, it had to be in order to function. Covered in black with red lights streaking through the curves, it was more than obvious that this was a Koopa establishment. In the back were many dining tables and in the corner were a couple of poker tables with more than a few players in them. The front of the bar didn't have too many people, however. The hour was late and most people had already gone back to their residence.

"The stars are infinite."

A toad colored in black with red dots looked out the window, the stars reflecting in his circular shades. "Are they?"

"The universe is an endless expanse. Millions of lifeforms struggling to survive, just like us. We got so close to talking with some of them too, before all of this happened. It would've been nice to meet with a hot alien chick at least once. Maybe one with 4 breasts."

"Y'know Larry," said the toad, rubbing a glass with a cloth, "I've been hearing strange things about that from some of the goers. They say the military has already made contact with some of them. They don't believe what they say."

Larry Koopa finished off his second glass of whiskey. He had heard of the rumors before he was sucked into the vacuum of the Galaxy. It was kept a secret for the same exact reason why the Great Destroyer was being kept a secret: Mass Riot. Destabilization of government. Larry felt that people feared too much.

"I'll take another." he said, pushing the glass towards the toad. "And I know all about that. There's a race supposedly trying to help people around the world with the pole shift. But it's pretty high up, only a few people have seen them, so the story goes. Do I buy it?" Larry shrugged. "I've seen some sick shit in my life. I've seen some crazy shit too so I'm not going to just say its nothing right off the bat. Hell Hinopio, when I heard of this place, I thought that was absolutely crazy. It sounded impossible, yet here I am, enjoying everything I have ever dreamed of without shelling out a single penny."

Larry shifted his stool. "Hell, now we're in space dude. I can't even see the Mushroom World from here."

Hinopio pushed another drink to Larry. "And your drinks are free."

Larry laughed. "Yeah. They're free here, but I just pay somewhere else."

"Nothing comes for free?"

Larry drank from his third glass before looking over his shoulder at the poker tables. She was winning them all again, unsurprisingly. The players were starting to look a little annoyed.

"Love doesn't."

"You have your eyes on someone?"

Larry rubbed his temple. "Yeah. It was impossible in the past, but now..." He looked at his glass. "It was impossible back then because she's human."

"Ah." Hinopio muttered, "Those never go well."

As if on cue, a human women approached and sat on the bar stool to the left of Larry. She wore a red and black dress and had long, straight black hair cropped up in a pair of stylistic pig tails. Her emotionless face made her identity undeniable.

"You're probably why I'm not playing poker with you guys tonight." muttered Larry. "I have a lot to think about. My brother Iggy is coming to the club today."

"I thought he wasn't allowed in?" she asked.

"He wasn't. It's a huge deal now cause it may lead to the rest of my siblings joining the Galaxy. It highly depends on what he does now, and how he acts at the council tomorrow."

"So that's your plan." She waved her hand at Hinopio. "Tiversky."

"Yeah Ashley, pretty much. Exposing the Galaxy itself is a bad idea. I mean, for what it offers, people should really appreciate it more. Even if its just an empty means to escape from the inevitable future, nothing like this has ever been offered before. Too few people are taking advantage of the Galaxy because of how extravagant it is. They let their senses take control."

Ashley simply nodded. Upon being given her Tiversky, she pulled out a small clear vial filled with a red liquid. She emptied its contents into the drink and took a sip.

Larry raised an eyebrow. "That looked like blood."

"It was bat's blood."

"Huh." Larry stared at the window in front of him.

Ashley looked at him. "You're more uptight than usual."

"It's just the earthquake." said Larry. "I don't know if they're alright or not. Well, Iggy and Ludwig are, I got a call. I don't know about the rest of them. Plus, I have to bump up my survival plans a notch."

"The Eternal Fortress?"

Larry smiled. "Yeah, Genlic. Ludwig knows about it. He says he would've taken it if he wasn't working on something else. I don't blame him." He took a sip from his glass. "I built several hydroponic greenhouses inside, several of them are large enough to be used as farms. Genlic was built above an underground river, great spot. All I had to do was build some irrigation canals and some natural pumps and that was it. And you don't have to worry about it crumbling, either. As far as our records go, Genlic has survived the past 4 pole shifts. Don't ask me what it's made of because I don't know. Iggy took a glance once and thought it was some type of alloy between stone and metal, but that's it." He scratched his head. "The only real question is how many people will be there. I hope they'll be a lot, but after talking to a few folk, some seem to be keen on dying with their riches."

Ashley sipped on her drink. "Denial feels too good for them to wake up."

"So, have you woken up?" asked Larry.

"Half awake after what happened."

Larry paused for a moment. "Sorry, but it wasn't my fault that Penny joined the brigade."

"It was Iggy who did it, and look who recruited Iggy. I didn't want her here."

"Yeah Ash, but she needs to live her own life, you know. I know you two are inseparable, but we're still our own person."

"Is it like how you're still inseparable from your siblings?"

"Yeah. But we're still growing. I care about them, but they have to live. We do our own thing now."

Ashley went silent for a moment. "And what about you?"

Larry laughed. "I was one of the first ones to break off. Remember 'Zombie Heartbreaker'?"

"That was when we first met." She made a rare smile. "How could I forget that?"

"Yeah, that was a pretty sick ritual we did back then. All of the zombies simultaneously combusted at the peak."

"I thought that the river of blood that it made afterwords was more romantic."

"Just like pouring your heart out for somebody." Larry smiled.

"Whatever happened to that?"

"Bowser chewed me out."

"You know, I don't have a problem with that."

"I don't either, but then this whole Galaxy thing happened."

"Well then," said Ashley, "Shall we pick up where we left off?"

There was silence for some time.

"I was supposed to ask that." said Larry.

"Does it matter?"

"It doesn't anymore. We can do whatever we want."

"Then what about now?" she asked.

Larry's PDA went off at that moment. He takes it from his pocket and sees a meeting message from Ludwig.

"Been waiting for this."

"Hm?"

"Iggy's arrival. Apparently, Penny's with them."

"Right now?"

"Yeah, I have to go meet them and show them around. Do the whole introduction. Thank god I'm not totally drunk."

"Do you mind if I come along?"

Larry hopped off his bar stool. "Sure."

* * *

Iggy slowly woke, struggling to keep his heavy eyes open. He quickly realized that Ludwig's face was looming over him.

"We have arrived." he said. "Unfortunately, you must stay awake for the orientation."

"Alright." said a groggy Iggy as Ludwig walked to the back of the ship. Iggy rubbed his eyes and wondered where he was. Taking a look out the window next to him, he saw metallic sidewalks and metal boxes stacked against a wall, but his view was rather limited otherwise. He did notice a group of what appeared to be koopa chauffeurs run past and stop toward the back of the ship. At that moment, Iggy heard what sounded like a door opening in the back.

"Good morning." said Ludwig, speaking with the Koopa's. "I will need a stretcher. There is an injured human on board." Some of the chauffeurs ran off.

"Huh?" Curious, Iggy tried to stand up, but he lost his balance and had to lean on his seat to support himself. That Aria Carant was more potent than he had realized. After rubbing his eyes again, he managed to simply stand up straight and adjust himself to his surroundings. The back door to the plane was open and chauffeurs were unloading baggage onto a trolley. Ludwig was looking over a person wearing what appeared to be a black and pink biking outfit.

"Who's that?" asked Iggy.

Ludwig looked up. "There was an earthquake during out flight, with the epicenter approximately 3 miles from the center of Koopa City. I received an SOS signal during the occurrence. I arrived at the source of the signal and it turned out to be Penny Crygor's. She was unconscious when I found her." He paused. "You should rehydrate yourself. There's a sink on the right."

"I'm not that thirsty." said Iggy, walking forward. "That earthquake was caused by the Great Destroyer, wasn't it?"

"I suggest you get hydrated. The orientation is a long process."

With a grumble, Iggy took a tall glass, filled it with water and found himself drinking the entire contents before drinking another full glass. He stared at himself in the mirror for a long moment. He had no idea what was going to happen to him now. The word "orientation" could mean many things, including interrogation or perhaps simply a guided tour. Despite his questionable decision to be drinking now, Iggy knew that he had to mentally prepare himself for what was to come the best way he could. Unfortunately, the only thing he could think of that would keep him up was a nice tall french vanilla with 2 creams and 2 sugars.

With renewed motivation, Iggy concentrated on walking correctly and managed to make it to the back of the ship relatively easily. He saw several chauffeurs lift an unconscious Penny onto a stretcher while the others hauled off a trolley full of luggage.

"It appears that Penny was knocked out cold into an unconscious state." said Ludwig. "She will have to stay in the hospital here and regain consciousness before she claims her residency. In the meantime, the first section of your orientation will begin."

Ludwig hopped out of the back of the ship, with Iggy following. As soon as he got out however, Iggy had to stop himself once he saw the starry expanse of space before him, surrounding his home planet, Mushroom World. It wasn't anything like the secret fortress he had been expecting. Spaceships were coming to and fro from the planet to his current location. Iggy turned around to say something to Ludwig, but was left speechless at what lay before him.

The Galaxy was far more than the simple fortress that he had imagined. To say that it was a space fortress would be an understatement. It was a gigantic monstrosity at least 400-500 ft high, surrounded by a number of small ships and docks and illuminated by every color imaginable through its countless windows. It seemed to be largely made up of 7 or 8 very large cylinders, each the size of a large skyscraper, with each cylinder squeezed together forming a larger entity roughly in the shape of a circle. Every cylinder was emblazoned with an over sized flag of its respective nation on its peak. On top of these cylinders was an upper platform which served as the foundation for a teardrop shape structure, the top of the entire complex. Various spaceships went to and fro, with logos of their alliance or their country of origin. Ships with the Koopa and Mario logos seemed to be the most abundant, but ships with Yoshi, DK and Wario logos were also seen, each gathering around specific sections of the Galaxy.

Ludwig stopped walking with the chauffeurs as soon as he noticed Iggy standing in awe at the spectacle. He smirked to himself. "It is a bit funny to imagine how this started out as a side project of mine. I really should discuss with you the whole history at some point."

Iggy couldn't say anything, but he managed to find the power in his legs and finally caught up to Ludwig.

"This is...um...uh..."

"A masterpiece, I completely agree." said Ludwig. "Every nation made a pitch towards the final effort to what you see now. Amazingly...hm?"

Ludwig stopped short upon seeing that the Koopa chauffeurs ahead of them were arguing with two people. Upon closer inspection, one of them had a tall blue hairdo and was doing most of the arguing. The other wore a black and red top-down and stood there silently.

"There you are, Larry. What's this commotion about?" asked Ludwig.

"Larry?" Iggy managed to divert his gaze from the architectural wonder to his younger sibling.

"Ashley says she can bring Penny back to consciousness."

"Well then, do so." instructed Ludwig, making the chauffeurs nervously back away. Ashley quietly stepped forward and raised her right hand, keeping it aloft.

"It's about time you made it here, bro." said Larry, walking over to Iggy. "Looks like you're as drunk as I am. I don't blame you at all."

"How do you do it?" asked Iggy.

"Do what?"

"Survive."

Larry laughed. "There's many ways."

Once Ashley's hand glowed a dull purple, she clasped it with Penny's left hand and softly spoke an unintelligible chant. After a few moments, Penny stirred from her sleep, diverting Iggy's attention.

"A-ash?" she stuttered, looking up at her. Ashley stepped forward and gave her a big hug. "I guess you found me."

Penny smiled. "Thank you." But her smile soon diminished after seeing what was in front of her, breaking off the hug. "Wait, where the hell am I?"

"You are currently on board The Galaxy," said Ludwig, "Which is a super-massive space station that is within orbit above the Mushroom World. All who stay and dwell here know the knowledge of the coming passage of the Great Destroyer, the changes that will occur as well as the coming pole shift." He pointed out towards the right of the Mushroom World, where a large fuzzy orange object could be seen behind the planet. "That is it right there. It is now outbound from our star and has encountered the Mushroom World within its orbit, resulting in the halt of our Mushroom World's orbit and the increase in earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other cataclysmic events. That is basically what is occurring, at the very least."

Penny was silent, too stunned to say anything. Ludwig nodded, as if expecting the response. "The important thing is that you managed to scathe away from the recent earthquake relatively unharmed."

"Hey, do you know if everyone else made it out of that?" asked Larry. "Roy told me he had gathered everyone together at the Golden Koopa, but it collapsed during the quake."

"Unfortunately, I have not heard anything." said Ludwig. "But, knowing our own robustness and ways of the Koopa, I am fairly confident that they are fine." Ludwig paused. "Well, unfortunately I have a meeting I must attend to soon, so I must depart. I called Larry down here to finish both of your orientations. He'll guide you both on the basic operations of being a member of The Galaxy. We will have to talk again during a more quieter time than now. Until then." Ludwig waved and turned to the chauffeurs. "Oh, and the stretcher is no longer needed, but thank you for your service." He then walked off towards what appeared to be an elevator terminal ahead next to the sidewalk, climbed aboard and after a few moments, quickly shot up the Koopa column.

"Great..." Larry muttered to himself, watching Ludwig shoot up the elevator. He turned back to the others. "Alright, welcome to The Galaxy. Since at least two of us are little tipsy right now, I think it's probably best to get this over with as quickly as possible."

Penny got off the stretcher and managed to stand up. "So...this is a grand conspiracy after all."

"Yeah, that's a big rule around here. Once you know it, you're not allowed to tell anyone else unless you get approval from the higher ups. You get jailed indefinitely if you don't, or worse. They say its because they don't want the public to panic when they hear about a giant planet that will cause the end of the world. The big guys want to keep the economies of the world moving. I will tell you though, a LOT of people in the Galaxy more than regret knowing the truth simply because they can't tell anyone else about it."

Iggy felt a little more relieved, but that didn't change his opinion on how wrong it was. At the very least, he knew that there were many other people who opposed The Galaxy.

"So, let's get started." said Iggy. "I'm pretty tired and you probably are too."

"Tired of being told what to do, maybe." said Larry, walking forward towards the entrance of the Koopa column. The others followed behind him. "I'm not tired of the free drinks here though."

"That's useful."

"Yeah, that's a plus about this place. Despite its intent, there's a lot of useful things you can get out of it. Information, supplies, distractions, you name it. Kind of like a shopping mall, except much bigger and not filled with completely useless junk."

Penny sighed. "Please, clothes are not useless."

"They are if you have entire floors filled with them. Actually, in the Mario column, Daisy was demanding an entire section filled with women's lingerie for a long time and she finally got it recently. Luigi gets to see something different every night. I should ask him about that the next time I see him." Penny rolled her eyes.

"Hey wait." said Iggy. "You talk to Luigi?"

"Oh yeah. We're pretty open around here. I guess it's the culture that's developed ever since the Galaxy opened. It took down a lot of the former borders that we had. That's not to say that we don't have any borders, period. Mario still mistrusts the Koopa's a great deal and requires all these release forms if you're going to meet him. I'll tell you about those later. But Luigi is far more lenient and while he doesn't talk to Bowser much, he does like Ludwig and myself so there's a good chance you'll hear from him, Iggy."

"Interesting."

The group reached the entrance of the Koopa column, which had a "Welcome to the Galaxy!" slogan sprawled over the top of the doorway. Walking inside, Iggy was impressed to find that the decor was nothing like Bowser's Castle at all. Instead, the design looked much like the interior of the Ludwig ZSX-1, which made Iggy remember Ludwig's comment about how he initially designed the Galaxy at first. While the rugs were black, much of the lighting was blue and the massive central hallway was open to the stars above. The hallway was also open in the center to the floors above and below it. Iggy looked below the silver railings and saw an immense amount of people doing this and that. There had to have been at least a few hundred from that sight alone.

The group continued to follow Larry until he walked into a large store on the right. The shop was full of PDA's, most being a bit smaller than the one Ludwig used. Behind the checkout counter were an assortment of cards representing the columns of the Galaxy, all of them blank.

"The first thing to do is to get your own personalized PDA." said Larry. "It's one of the most important things to have while you're here. It shows names, contact information and an atlas of the world as it is now. You can check your email, use it as a phone, plus a bunch of other things. Having it is a requirement at The Galaxy. After that, you'll get your apartment assigned to you. Then we can all go home and pass out." He smiled at the thought.

Iggy quickly got in line, eager to get the orientation over with. He could only imagine what his new bed looked like and how soft it was. He hoped it was one of those new pillow top beds. It was like falling asleep on a Lakitu's cloud.

Iggy felt someone tug on his arm behind him. He turned around and saw Penny looking at him.

"So...that planet..."

"Basically, it's the same one found in the Mushroom Book of Destruction." said Iggy.

"That means..."

"Yeah." Iggy sighed. "I'm sorry."

Penny was silent for a moment. "So, that's what you meant back then."

"Yeah. I didn't want to be too hard on you, but I believe that everybody deserves to know this. Just don't tell anyone else that, because-"

"I know." She looked out the window, towards the orange orb that was the Great Destroyer. "Thank you, Iggy...for not leaving me in the dark."

"No problem."

"Next!" said a voice in front of him. Iggy walked up to the cashier waiting for him behind the counter. He saw another cashier open up next to him, who promptly ushered Penny to his location.

"Welcome to the Galaxy!" said the cashier. "I will need the Galaxy card that was given to you before your arrival."

"Hmm...oh yeah." Iggy remembered the card Ludwig gave to him in his tower. Iggy pulled it out and gave it to the cashier, who then promptly swiped it in a machine and gave it back to Iggy. After a moment of waiting, a printer went off and printed up several sheets of paper. Stapling them together, the cashier then handed them to Iggy.

"Your PDA is being manufactured and should be ready in a few minutes." said the cashier. "Until then, I would like to go over the specifications of your apartment."

"Okay."

"You have been assigned K7th floor section 9, blocks 770 through 779. This of course includes the basic commodities such as a main foyer, living room, dining room, shower, kitchen and bedroom. These are covered in rooms K79-770 to K79-774. Rooms K79-775 to K79-777 house your laboratory, which was built to the exact specifications as the one you use back on Mushroom World. We did upgrade much of the technology in accordance with Galaxy standards, so please feel free to contact us if you have any questions on any of the replaced devices. Rooms K79-778 and K79-779 house your personal observatory. Our records indicate that this had been requested to King Bowser back on Mushroom World, who had then forwarded it Ludwig, who then fulfilled your request by constructing it here at the Galaxy. Everything you've requested in its construction should be there."

Iggy simply stared forward with his mouth slightly agape and overtired eyes unmoving.

"Each apartment is equipped with adequate security measures to ensure safety and the comfort of your well being. You have 3 apartment doors. The first is the entrance to your main living quarters, K79-772. This is located to the right as you step off of the elevator, on the left looking at the floor from below. The second and third doors lead to your laboratory and observatory, rooms K79-776 and K79-778, respectably. These are located to the left as you step off the elevator, or on the right looking at the floor from below.

Each door is equipped with a several security mechanisms. The main way open a door is to place a finger on the fingerprint scanner, then say a vocal password that will unlock the door. These security mechanisms can be set yourself upon first arrival at your apartment. These security measures remain universal for each door you own by default, however if you wish, you may customize each door to carry a different vocal password. And don't worry, the vocal security system was designed to recognize only the tone of your voice as the proper authorization, making it impossibly difficult for others to try to imitate.

For food, there are several ways to eat. The two most popular options are to either dine out at one of the many restaurants or to order room delivery. As with everything in the Galaxy, it is all free as long as you have the proper identification."

A small mechanical sound was heard and a black PDA with a red Koopa logo embalmed on the top emerged from the desk.

"Your PDA has been manufactured." said the cashier, handing it to a shocked Iggy. "This will be one of your most useful tools to find your way around the Galaxy. It contains a map of every section of the Galaxy, including floors, restaurants, shops, bars, concerts, cinemas, you name it. It contains directories of all of the people who are with the Galaxy, whether they are on the Galaxy itself or upon the Mushroom World. Your PDA also contains a directory of all the shops and restaurants, including those that specialize in room delivery service. There are many, many other useful features that you may explore at your convenience.

That concludes the first half of your orientation. Any questions?"

Iggy at length shook out of his shocked trance. "Wait, that was the first half?"

"Yes. At a later date, you are to attend your induction ceremony at the council hall. This will determine your loyalty to the Galaxy and how willing you are to keep the Great Destroyer a secret from those on the Mushroom World. Depending on your response, you may be eligible for added bonuses and benefits here at the Galaxy."

Iggy frowned. He knew he wasn't going to get away that easily. "So, every member goes through the same thing?"

"Correct. The Council must test each of its newcomers for their integrity. The induction is hosted by the leaders of the respective section of the Galaxy. In your case, King Bowser Koopa will likely be the chairman, with Ludwig Von Koopa acting as vice chairman."

Iggy rubbed his eyes.

"Ah, I wouldn't worry." said the cashier. "Even if Bowser hosts the induction, each leading member of the Council must also be present to weigh in their decisions. It will not be unjust."

"Alright..." Iggy muttered to himself. "...Alright. So, that's it?"

"If you do not have any further questions for me, then you are free to go."

"Thank you for everything." said Iggy, putting the papers and PDA in his pocket. He turned and saw Larry, Penny and Ashley talking amongst themselves.

"Took you long enough." said Larry.

"I have 10 blocks to myself, apparently." said Iggy.

"Wait, really? I only got 5 blocks. What's up with that?"

"So did I." said Penny. "Including my lab."

"I requested to Bowser years ago, when I still got along with him that I wanted an observatory. Apparently, the request went to Ludwig who built it here. Looks like he's been anticipating me for some time." said Iggy.

"He's got some kind of plan, Iggy." said Larry. "Let's talk about it at some other point. I want to crash."

"Same." The group walked out of the store and made their way past dozens of shops towards the center of the Koopa column. They soon found themselves in central core of the Koopa section. A great statue of King Bowser Koopa was in its center, surrounded by several flowing fountains. People walked to and fro, into and out of shops, restaurants and many elevators.

"I'm glad you came with me, Ashley." said Larry. "Otherwise, I'd have to walk her to the Wario section to show her where her room his."

"You can use the PDA to find it." said Ashley.

"That's true, but its much easier to let someone go with you to get the firsthand experience." said Larry. Iggy was already going through PDA however.

"I already found mine. Apparently, I got the window side."

"Yeah, section 9." said Larry. "I got the same thing, man. Each section 9 on every floor is the window side. The higher ups in this world always get that side. I wouldn't have it any other way. So, you know where you're going?"

"Yeah." said Iggy. "I want to add you guys to my contact list before I go."

"Good idea, man." said Larry, pulling out his PDA. "My room is K69-257."

"K79-772." said Iggy, punching in Larry's digits.

"Mine is W79-477." said Penny, looking through her PDA.

"W59-612." said Ashley.

The group took a few moments to plug their friend's rooms into their directories. Iggy noticed that as soon as he typed in the coordinates of a room and the name along with it, their contact information was immediately made available. Originally, none of the apartments had the names of anyone living in them.

"Cool, that makes things a lot easier." said Iggy. "We should talk again when we're not so tired, drunk, hungover, or anything else."

"Definitely. So, you got it from here, Ashley?"

"Yes. I'll see you tomorrow at our usual spot." Ashley then turned and walked off with Penny towards the Wario column. Larry smiled to himself as they walked off. Iggy eyebrow-ed at the spectacle, then smiled.

"Heh, should have known you had something going on with her." said Iggy, turning towards the elevators. "Ever since that Zombie Heartbreakers incident, I had this feeling."

"I think I still have that feeling." said Larry as they walked. "But you know how much people hate the whole koopa and human interracial thing."

"Yeah." said Iggy. "I remember you got chewed out by dad for that one. But that was a bit hypocritical, don't you think?"

Larry smirked. "Yeah, you're right." He walked to the right side of the elevator and pressed the up button. "I should do what my heart tells me to do."

"Good luck on that one."

The elevator quickly descended to ground level and the left and right sides of the elevator opened up. Iggy and Larry walked inside.

"Interesting, it opens on its sides." said Iggy to himself.

"It travels sideways, too." On a screen behind them, they punched in their apartment coordinates. The doors slid to a close and the elevator ascended upwards rapidly.

"Nice..." said Iggy, admiring the view. But before he could say anything else, the elevator stopped its upward movement, with the floor ticker at "K6." It then suddenly moved backwards, moving through the various sections of the floor. At length, the elevator came to a stop at "K69" before moving sideways to their right down past the 400 and 300 apartment blocks. Finally, the elevator came to a stop at "K69-257" and the elevator doors opened.

"This place is huge." muttered Iggy.

"Tell me about it. Well, I'm ready to crash. I'll see you later. Good luck at the induction. Just don't get pissed off at him."

"Right..." said Iggy as the elevator doors closed. He couldn't help but deeply sigh at that moment. He stared at the floor buttons for several seconds to regain his bearings. It felt like he had just surfed the largest wave of his life.

As the elevator headed towards the next coordinates on its list, he knew that everything had just started. The secret life of the wealthy, the perfect world where everything that was ever dreamed of could be made a reality. The ones who knew the secret history of the world. The place where ones desires could truly be manifested.

But at what cost?

Even if they say that everything in the Galaxy was free, it had to cost something. It wasn't money. Was it happiness? Undoubtedly. Was it sanity? Surely for some. Was it time? Will power?

Feelings?

That's what bugged Iggy the most. As long as materiality was allowed to cover up one's own real feelings to deal with a hard absolute truth, getting to know people was going to be difficult. He had already noticed how Ludwig put up a front when he dealt with him. Iggy also sensed in the air a certain superficiality amongst the population of the Galaxy. Being royalty, he was well aware of the worship of one's own vanity. He feared that he had to face it again. There was also something else that bothered him...

The elevator came to a stop at "K79-772" and the doors opened. Iggy looked up and saw his apartment door in front of him, marked with the same apartment number. At length, he finally got off of the elevator, which then closed its doors and sped off.

He stood still for a second and looked around. The surroundings were mostly of black and blue with white lights illuminating overhead, the typical décor. Other than the elevator track that lay next to a walkway through the section, the area was not very striking. It was very quiet however, something that Iggy appreciated after growing up with noisy siblings.

Walking up to the door, he noted a terminal to the right of it which contained a fingerprint scanner with a small screen above it. He placed his finger on the scanner, which seemed to prompt the small screen to activate. "Please set your password." said a mechanized voice.

"This will take some time..." Iggy muttered to himself as he tried to think of something he could remember.

"Password activated." said the voice, with the screen lighting up in green.

"No! Crap..." The door to the apartment opened and Iggy wondered if he could even remember that phrase. He walked inside into the main foyer, a circular room surrounded by black marble pillars and covered with a large white fur rug. He walked forward through the room and entered the living room, where he stopped and took in his new living quarters.

Directly in front of him was the main living room, which was mostly made up of leather sofas and couches which surrounded a shiny sphere that lay on the ground. Iggy guessed that it was a holographic television that Ludwig had made recently. To his northwest lay a large rectangular hole in the wall, which gave the view to the dining room, complete with a large pine table surrounded my more leather seats. Someone knew about Iggy's dislike for wooden chairs. Directly to Iggy's left was the kitchen, which contained the basic components for one as well as a central island that housed what appeared to be some kind of platform or lift.

To Iggy's northeast was another hole in the wall which gave a view of what seemed to be some type of recreational room, complete with a pool table and several monitors hooked onto the walls. To Iggy's right was a seemingly large empty table that stretched into the recreational room, but below this table was all of Iggy's suitcases and laptop cases as well as many of his desktops. He felt revealed upon seeing them all safe and sound.

Iggy noticed that to his right, there seemed to be another terminal as well as a plastic tube that ran alongside the wall before disappearing into it. At the end of this tube was a green letter. He took it out and noticed that it was sealed with a gold and green "L."

"Luigi?" he muttered. Iggy then remembered something about Luigi contacting Ludwig and Larry and something about being neutral to the Koopa's. Iggy decided that it could wait, as he was too tired to concentrate. But he wasn't too tired to try to make himself remember his door password however. Iggy took out a pen the papers he was given and flipped to door security. He wrote the phrase in one of the margins and hoped he would see it in the morning, whenever that would be.

He looked past the main living room and noticed that the far back wall was split in two. Putting the papers on the counter, Iggy walked past the living room and looked for a way to open it. To the right of the wall was a small bathroom. However, to the left of the wall was a small panel with several buttons. Looking at it, he pressed a few before accidentally turning off all the lights. Eventually, at the press of the right button, the walls slowly opened up, revealing a large pair of tinted glass doors, the same size as the doors that had receded. Not finding any buttons to open the glass doors with, Iggy walked in front of it to figure out what to do next, only find that they opened automatically.

"Please, let this be the bedroom." he muttered to himself. He was happy to find that it was and that a large king sized bed lay before him, covered in a large black fur blanket. Smiling sleepily, he immediately threw off his shell as the glass doors shut behind him and climbed into bed with a major feeling of relief.

"It's a pillow top..." he murmured. That fact alone made his bed the best thing in the apartment, so far. He couldn't remember the last time he got a proper nights rest. In fact, Iggy couldn't remember the last time he slept in an actual bed since he received the Doomsday Manuscript from Toad. That felt like a million years ago.

Iggy looked up at the ceiling only to find the stars staring down back at him. He silently thanked whoever thought up the architectural design of the ceiling as well as the rest of his apartment. After stargazing for a while, he turned on his side and thought about a certain person before he fell asleep.


	10. 10

Underneath the charred remains of the Golden Koopa were a long stretch of underground tunnels, surrounded by warp pipes and lesser creatures that turned away at the presence of a large company that traversed them. At the front of the company was Bowser Jr, using every bit of his inherited authority as he could. Behind him, his older siblings Wendy O. and Morton Koopa Jr. could only watch and shake their heads at the nearly pathetic display of power. Behind them was a large group of people that had also escaped the collapse of the restaurant. Most were quiet in awe of the royal family and in light of what occurred, although some murmured to themselves as they continued forward.

"Do you have any idea where were going?" asked Wendy, sounding a tad impatient.

"Of course!" boasted Junior with his trademark grin. "When I was made heir to the kingdom, Bowser showed the entire underground blueprints for this area. There is a way out of here, a warp pipe ahead that will take us to the surface and we can be rescued by my troops there."

"That's all nice and lovely." muttered Morton to himself, seemingly bothered by other things. "That still doesn't change the fact--"

"Yes, you've said this a gazillion times already." interrupted Wendy. "Kylie was not with us when we went down this track. She must have turned a corner somewhere. I'm more worried about Lemmy who crashed through that window back there and fell like, 5 stories."

Morton shrugged. "He's the best acrobat in the family, he probably jumped off the chandelier on his way down. I wouldn't worry about him." Morton was silent for a moment. "You know, she was originally on Mario's side. That was always in the back of my mind, but hey, I was hoping. But it looks like her true colors are finally shining."

"What, that she ditched you? That isn't the first time. It's more like the 300th time."

"Shut up! It's not like I had much of a choice anyway."

"Hm?"

"It was just...convenient. That's how it worked out."

"Do I even want to know what's going on?" Junior blurted out.

"Not really, since this has nothing to do with you." said Morton.

"A typical response from one of my block-headed brothers." muttered Junior. He turned around another corner and the surrounding light started to slowly grow brighter.

"At least I don't fuck porn stars, but hey, whatever floats your boat."

"Hey! You're the one to tricked me into this bullshit, buddy. I wouldn't start complaining now because I can just stop right here and make you wish never said a damn thing to me! Fucking black skin doesn't even have the right-"

He never finished as Morton quickly punched him square in the face, sending Junior flying across the floor. "Keep your mouth shut you little prick or you wont see daylight ever again."

Wendy quickly zapped Morton with her wand. "Hey, let's do the fighting outside when we're NOT lost!"

Junior reluctantly got up and threw a glare at Morton before heading off on his own again, with the rest following.

"Well anyway," muttered Morton, "Before that bullshit occurred, I was talking about how Kylie came to me. You apparently haven't heard anything. Aren't you the official gossip lady?"

"Well, yeah. I pretty much know what's going on with who's going out with who. Some people are just too much to themselves though."

"I'll just say this. She was given to me."

"Given?"

"Yeah. It's not like this was supposed to be some arranged marriage or something. But I was told that she wouldn't be with me forever anyways. I was also told to keep all of this a secret, so that's all you're going to know."

Wendy rolled her eyes. "So basically, you and Kylie was all show?"

"...pretty much. If she found was she was supposed to find, then she's not coming back."

"Find what?" asked Wendy, but Morton said nothing as the trio entered what seemed to be a large room with a yellow warp pipe in the center.

"This is it." said Junior. "This leads to the outskirts of the restaurant, about a mile away or so."

Morton fleshed out his cell phone. "I'm going give him a little message." Punching in several digits, he sent off the message with a beep. "Alright. Knowing Roy, he'll be here in about 10 minutes."

"Wonderful." muttered a sarcastic Junior. If there was one person he could not stand more than Morton, it was Roy Koopa. There was a moment of silence.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" blurted an impatient Wendy. She quickly jumped onto the pipe and warped out of the room. Seconds later, she found herself underneath a dark starry sky in what appeared to be nothing but dry flatland's with a great smoldering ruin not far off in one direction.

"Yup, this is the spot!" explained Junior, coming out the warp pipe. "It's only a matter of time before I'm back at the castle again!"

As Morton exited the warp pipe followed by a large number of people, Wendy felt her cell phone vibrate. She opened it and was rather surprised to see that it was a text message from Kylie Koopa.

"Hey Wendy. You probably noticed that I went away. It was fun while it lasted, but I have a different path to take. I know you can figure all of this out. Good luck in the future. 3 Kylie"

Wendy quickly looked at Morton then back at her phone again. It was becoming apparent that Morton was not lying in his confession from earlier. Indeed, their relationship seemed to be nothing more than a coverup for something even greater. The problem was, Wendy didn't know who Kylie was with before all of this.

"Why didn't I ask her?" she asked herself. "Oh wait...I did."

"What are you mumbling about?" asked Morton.

"Nothing. But, you were right about Kylie. She's not coming back."

Morton looked the other way. "Yeah." was all he could conjure up.

A few moments later, a large ship was seen quickly approaching their location. The flag was purple with an imprint of Roy's head in the center.

"Here comes the world's biggest asshole." muttered Junior under his breath. The ship slowed and hovered above the group, blowing huge gusts of air in their direction. Eventually, a door opened on its side and a ramp was lowered.

"Bowser Junior!" said one guard on the top of the ramp, saluting him. "Wendy O., Morton Jr.! Roy has arrived to rescue you and the party! Please step aboard!"

One by one the Koopalings walked up the ramp, watching their step as the wind of the desert tried its part in returning all to the sand. As Wendy approached the inner cabin of the ship, she couldn't help but look back and wonder if Kylie's disappearance was in any related to Larry's speech from earlier. "I wonder..." she said aloud before she entered the interior bowels of the doomship.

* * *

Iggy Koopa awoke with a groan. He was met with the endless starry expanse that he saw before darkness overtook him. A part of him wished he was still dreaming that none of this was real. He felt like going back to sleep and never waking up again. A pleasant as that was, he knew the reality. It was just the simple fact on his mind that he was living within a living dream.

Mental debates aside, he pushed aside his apathy as well as the covers to rise out of bed. He sleepily walked over to the mirror and stared at what the pillows did to his hair that night. They seemed to have a pretty interesting hair styling technique as all of Iggy's hair was curved to the right. Smirking to himself at the sight, Iggy looked about the room for the remedy to his unfortunate debacle, and saw a potential solution in the way of a open door on the other side of the room. He missed it the night before in his walk of over-tiredness. A shower adjacent to his room was very convenient indeed.

But before he walked inside, he noticed a blinking inside of his shell. Reaching into it, he took out his PDA. Iggy looked at the screen, which displayed a new message icon. He opened it to find 3 new messages. He played the first one.

"Hello, this is Luigi. Don't worry, I have no problems with you right now. Actually, I'm calling about the letter I sent to your mailbox. I'm not sure you had the chance to look through it yet considering you've just arrived, but I'll be hosted a meeting about survival during the pole shift. I'm not sure you would be interested in participating or not, but what we do is pick the best leaders in our group and set up survival shelters on the planet's surface. I understand your younger brother Larry has something he's been cooking up for a while now and he's supposed to give many of the details in the next meeting. Well, if you are interested in attending or starting a shelter of your own, then feel free to drop by our meeting room in M69-2635. I look forward to seeing you there! Goodbye!"

"Survival shelter, huh?" Iggy was certainly interested in the idea, but he wasn't too keen on leading a large group of people. He preferred to work alone. Then again, an idea had been rolling around in Iggy's brain for some time now. Perhaps that place could be used as a shelter after all. Iggy skipped to the next message.

"Iggy, call me."

"Penny?" The message ended as soon as it started. "That was weird." He decided to call her back when he was more awake. He skipped to the third message.

"Hello Ignatius, please call me when you are prepared for the second half of the orientation. The council has convened and will remain so for another 2 hours until dinner. It would be disgraceful to have you show up late."

"Blah blah blah..." Iggy muttered to himself. He looked at the time on the PDA and realized that he had slept nearly 14 hours and that it was already late afternoon. Iggy wondered how often he would be able to do that.

Putting his PDA back into his shell, Iggy wandered over to the room he did not see the other night. Walking through the door frame, Iggy saw that it was indeed a shower, a very luxurious one at that. The room was covered in black marble from head to toe, with with a large glass bowl on the right serving as his sink. Various towels were hung up on the left wall to accommodate the more fascinating sight in front of him, something he had dreamed about for some time.

Iggy walked forward to the main shower and looked at it with a sheepishly tired grin. A rectangle hole was cut into the wall just below the ceiling, with several knobs and levers below this. Closing the glass door behind him, he twisted one of the levers and received exactly what he expected: a waterfall torrent that splashed onto his head, immediately destroying his pillow's wonderful hairstyle.

"Ahhh..." Iggy grunted, finally happy to feel something so relaxing. To say that his adventure stressed him out was an understatement. He had been holding out for as long as he could for any kind of relief, whether it be alcohol, a hot tub or perhaps a nice hot waterfall. How the architects of his room even knew of his desire to have one, Iggy did not know. But it didn't really concern him.

Iggy grabbed a bottle of shampoo and lathered his hair with it as a million thoughts and worries flushed out of his mind. There was something nagging at him though. It has been nagging him for many years, or so it felt. Always there on the side and never obvious, but one can feel its presence when noticed. But a thought interrupted his mind.

"Thank you, I appreciate it."

"Hm? I thought I was over that." Iggy thought aloud. He knew that denial was at work on both sides. If he really wanted to, he could probably pursue it. After all, his very father Bowser was undeniably caught in a very dangerous game with Princess Toadstool. But Iggy was no Princess snatcher, nor was he very much of a romantic. At least he thought so.

"Or you just suck." he muttered to himself, washing the shampoo from his head. That was probably true in some ways. Even if they were to get together, how long would it be before some argument would break it up? They argued constantly over the tiniest issues imaginable, which Iggy now realized held very little merit in the future. If he could some stem them from continuing, then perhaps things could look up.

"Perhaps..." Iggy grabbed the soap from a notch in the wall. It was even the right brand. Everything that he wanted was falling into place, even those things that seemed impossible to grasp from before. Everything seemed to be rotating the opposite direction now. Iggy wondered if he would be oppressing too many people with his new found position.

That made him remember something Ludwig told him. The Galaxy was supposedly an entire culture unto itself with no rules, restrictions, biases, racism or prejudice. Iggy knew that was not only influenced by Bowser and Peach, but also that with the current atmosphere of doom and gloom and the civilization of the world reaching its end, the idea of being able to do anything that was imaginable was a very nice prospect. Realizing this fact alone bothered Iggy greatly for many reasons. Most of it was personal. He could still deny it from before, but...

"It's not going to go away." he muttered to himself. With the freedom that he now had, he knew it was best to try to resolve this as soon as he possibly could. He and Penny had been friends for many years, ever since the founding of the Inventor's Board. He knew he was terrible with relationships and despised people in general. But the nagging in his heart wouldn't leave him alone. He needed to fix it.

Turning off the facet to the waterfall, he opened the glass door and grabbed a towel to dry his hair. There was many things he always wanted to do in life. He wanted his own laboratory, which had now occurred when he arrived at the Galaxy. He wanted to be a pioneer in genetics and unlock the hidden abilities he knew lay dormant within the Koopa DNA. He had somewhat of a desire to open a geneticist shop as ordering everything on the Internet was not the fastest option. Looking at himself in the mirror, he knew there were other things he refused to bring to his conscious mind. They could wait for a while. He already brought one heart-aching issue to light and that was enough for one day.

After taking some mouthwash and spitting into the sink, he made his way out of the bathroom and back toward the other side of his room to see what was in the big black and spiky dresser that was underneath his mirror. Sure enough, his favorite pair of boxers lay within, all 20 duplicates of them. He put one on and crawled into his shell that he left on the floor the night previous. He stood up and felt the blood rush through his legs. He had no idea how long he'd been asleep, but for once, it didn't seem to matter him. He felt like he deserved it.

He grabbed his trademark glasses from the bureau next to his bed and put them on. "I'm hungry." he said to himself. Deciding to indulge his stomach, he walked to the giant set of tinted glass doors, which opened automatically. He walked down through the open living room to the table at the opposite end of the room, where he had previously left the instructions to his apartment. But he then remembered Ludwig's message from earlier. Taking out his PDA, he navigated back to the message and hit the reply button on the keypad.

"Yes Ignatius, thank you for responding. I hope you rested well."

"Hi Ludwig." said Iggy. "You said something about the next part of my induction."

"The council was notified that you were prepared to undergo the 2nd half of your initiation. Although I will admit, it could have been a little more timely."

"Larry didn't say a thing to me about being exactly on time, so blame him."

There was a sigh on the other end. "Very well then. We shall now begin the orientation."

"Can I at least have something to eat first? I'm starving." complained Iggy.

"You will during the ceremony. Now, I recommend not moving any part of your posterior for the next several seconds..."

"Why?" As soon as Iggy said this, he found himself surrounded in a bright blue light that completely blocked his field of vision. When the light dimmed down, he no longer found himself in his room, but in a much, much larger room than before. Surrounding him were many people, as if he were the star of a major performance within a stadium. The lower rows were filled with people largely cram packed together, seemingly the lesser denizens of the Galaxy vying to see the next inductee into their club. The upper levels were much different. Surrounded by various lights encircling the stadium, these levels housed many of the more important members of the planet who now turned their attention to the Koopaling in silence. Iggy immediately identified Wario on the highest level, surrounded by many plates of food and scantly clad servants all under the banner of the great W. He snickered to himself, as if Iggy was expected.

"This is pretty good." said Wario, finally breaking the still silence as he cut into his large plate of chicken parmesan. A servant said something in his ear. "Made by Torte? I wouldn't trust a mushroom chef out of my ass, heh, but I need to give it to him. Say, you hungry?" He pointed his fork at Iggy. Many other faces turned to the Koopaling awaiting a response.

"Considering I haven't eaten a complete meal since my own adventure began, that would be...appreciated."

"Heh heh..." Wario chuckled to himself. The others murmured amongst themselves.

"Tell me, what's your favorite?" said a voice. Iggy turned to the Bowser section to find that it came from Mouser. "You can get anything here."

Iggy thought to himself. "I haven't looked at all the shops yet-"

"Trust me buddy, when I say anything, I mean anything. You can have anything you want."

"I'll just have my usual then." said Iggy. "A pepperoni, bacon and prosciutto pizza."

It was quiet once again for a moment. Iggy was finally able to see Bowser, sitting underneath a massive flag to the Koopa Kingdom, featuring the trademark red Bowser head. With his arms crossed and a growing frown, he seemed frustrated. Iggy had the feeling that things may be pretty now, but they could get ugly very soon. At length, Bowser nodded and almost instantly, a table was raised in front of him with the pizza laying there, along with a glass of water.

"Please sit." said Ludwig Von Koopa, sitting to Bowser's right. Iggy found a large chair behind and promptly sat upon it. As soon as he did, 7 glowing star crystals suddenly floated up from below, encircling his position. They spun around rapidly until a large noise was heard. Iggy saw that he was entrapped within some type of barrier.

"Of course, we fear for our own survival." said Dr. Crygor with his feet propped up.

"It's not much use to trust someone who has selfish intentions. You never know when they will backstab us." said E. Gadd, leaning back in his chair.

"Please excuse the necessary precautions." said Kamek.

"Excused." said Iggy, taking a slice of pizza. "I'm sure many have gone insane knowing what is coming."

There was much talk and murmur after his statement. Iggy realized that he was going to have to watch what he said from that point forward.

"E. Gadd will be our interrogator. He has been voted by the council as the most neutral for this orientation." With this, E. Gadd stood up and floated out of his seat under a special levitating platform. A chair was raised across from Iggy, to which E. Gadd landed upon and sat down.

"Welcome to the Galaxy, Iggy. Hoho." said E. Gadd. "I'm sure you've heard that phrase many a time by now. This is the second half of your orientation. We will be testing you to see if you truly qualify as a member of the Galaxy. Let us begin."

* * *

He rubbed his eyes. After an hour of questions, the Council called a half hour recess. Iggy was thankful; the questions were a little more than irritating on his ego. He knew that they were testing his integrity. But he honestly wondered if he deserved such treatment.

"I don't deserve any of this crap." muttered Iggy to himself. Seated in a cafe just outside the council hall, he stared out a window at the endless expanse of stars before him. He wished he could go back home and tell the rest of his siblings what was really going on. He wondered if Larry felt the same way. Knowing him, he would've attempted to do something about rather than sit on his hands.

Iggy suddenly remembered Penny's call. He grabbed his PDA and looked for her number in his contact list.

"Hello. Are you busy?"

Iggy looked up and to his surprise, found Mario next to him with a questionable look. Iggy looked back at his PDA. "Not yet." he quietly said, putting it away. Mario sat down on his chair across from him before ushering over one of the waiters.

"Yes, a bowl of meatballs please." said Mario. The waiter simply nodded and walked off after giving Mario a glass of water. Iggy looked back out the window. He didn't like the prospect of Mario coming to see him personally. He was probably going to express his hatred for the family, as per the usual.

Mario drank from his glass. "I was wrong about you guys. The spawn of Bowser."

"The spawn of Bowser, huh?" Iggy smirked, but did not meet Mario's gaze.

"I figured you were all the same." continued Mario. "Being the same blood of that tyrant. You and the rest always followed his orders, so I figured they must be up to no good again."

"I never follow his orders." said Iggy, eying Mario. "And I never will again."

"That's what I heard from your responses. But what if he decides to imprison you for not following him? What will you do then?"

Iggy snorted. "He can try, but I don't think the council would agree to something so illogical, especially if they're serious about neutrality."

Mario scratched his chin. The waiter returned with a fairly large bowl of meatballs drenched in marinara sauce as well as a mixed drink. "Thank you very much." said Mario and the waiter walked off. Mario wasted no time and dug into the meatballs like a coin digger. Iggy continued to stare out the window, lost in thought.

At length, Mario looked up. "If you became a member, what would you do?"

Finally, Iggy ripped himself away from the window and looked at Mario. "It's not a matter of what I want to do, as to what I should be doing."

"Oh? What do you want to do?"

"Probably the same as everyone else. Tell the world what's going on."

"You know, I tried that once." Mario said, wiping his face with a napkin. "That was before the Galaxy was formed. Merlin the wizard found it one day while he was giving a reading for me. I knew I had to tell the princess this, but when I told her, she wouldn't believe it. Mama mia. None of her servants did, either. Even when I showed her a picture of it, she found it hard to believe. It was not until the Galaxy was built and she came up here herself that she believed it.

Well, here's my point. Even if everyone deserves to know what's happening, that doesn't mean they'll believe what's happening. Do you follow?"

"I suppose." muttered the Koopaling.

"Someone will deny anything that goes against their perfect world. You can't force them to believe something they do not want to believe." Mario ate another meatball in one bite. "Like right now. No one wants to believe that, but that's the way it is. So, knowing that, what should you be doing?"

Iggy was silent for a moment. "Starting a survival group of some kind. We're not going to be up here forever."

"You're right." Mario ate another meatball. "Well, I can definitely say you're getting into the Galaxy."

"Oh, so you do rig the outcome?" asked Iggy.

"No, it's a simple fact. The thing that's most important is how each new member can contribute to the Galaxy. Do they have knowledge others can use? A specific set of skills? If they can be useful in this society and show selfless integrity, then there's a good chance of being accepted. It's the selfish people that have a harder time. Your idea of a survival group may not be new, but it shows selflessness which is valued here."

Iggy was silent.

"Well, we better head back to last half of your interrogation." Mario stood up. "It should not be as bad as the first half with Bowser drilling you for answers. It'll be a more even playing field this time."

"That's good." said Iggy nonchalantly, standing up and following Mario back to the council hall.

* * *

The council hall doors opened and a multitude of people flowed forth, conversing amongst each other.

"Are you sure you don't to be beamed back to your room?" came a voice.

Iggy turned and faced the mushroom. "No thanks, Toad. I need to get some air."

"Okay." said Toad, smiling. "Congratulations on your new Galaxy membership."

Iggy looked at him for a moment. "Thank you. I wouldn't be here without you."

Toad shrugged. "I guess that's the way things worked out."

"Yeah."

Turning away, Iggy walked down a massive set of stairs that led to the council courtyard. He had no idea where he was after being beamed to the council chamber earlier. It didn't really matter to him at that moment. He pushed open the double doors to the council chamber and turned right. From his orientation, it became clear to him that many of the people he knew had changed dramatically thanks to the Galaxy. They seemed careless when they should be planning their next moves to survive. The Galaxy was within orbit, yes, but who knows how long it would stay there? Technology was a fragile thing, its so-called strength often times an illusion. Ironically, survival was better on the surface in Iggy's opinion.

Iggy turned another corner and walked into an escalator heading down from the very top of the Galaxy. Luigi's suggestion of a survival group kept propping up in his mind. Iggy's idea for a location was excellent and the best he could think of, but it was a bit inaccessible at the moment. Thoughts of various pieces of machinery clouded his mind, trying to think of the best ways to uncover the behemoth in a short period of time. More than likely, he needed to design most of the excavation machines himself. Perhaps he could create a construction company for this purpose?

With these thoughts in mind, Iggy got off the escalator and walked in another random direction, creating a new future for himself. It became evident that he was going to need a notebook to jot the engine design that was now forming in his mind. Reaching for his PDA, he tried out the find feature by punching in the word "notebook." The screen flashed and the closest store was seen, only around the corner. He quickly darted into it and gained a planning pad and a pencil, scanned his PDA for the cashier, then walked quickly out the store.

He kept walking until it became evident that he had walked from the Koopa column into the Yoshi column. Lush trees dotted the walls with vines and other leafy things covered everything else, practically making it an artificial jungle. Different colored Yoshi's were mostly seen, with some Koopa's and Toad's roaming about. Many of them seemed to enjoy eating red fruit off some of the trees while talking to each other. One of the shops was a Yoshi grill, where a cook used unhatched Yoshi eggs to make omelets.

But Iggy kept walking, not interested. An idea of a molecularizer ran across his mind and he tried to find the best way to power it. Solar? Perhaps, but the power may not be enough to support the torque it would have to go through. He could lower the height of the machine, but that would reduce production output. Batteries would be nice if he wasn't working in the middle of nowhere where infrastructure was too thin.

He tried to think of a solution, but found his thoughts were cut off by what sounded like tribal music. He looked ahead and saw a parade of Yoshi's marching towards him. He darted to the side and watched as they slowly marched past him. The larger Yoshi's were beating upon war drums while the smaller Yoshi children were all blowing through kazoo's. Iggy thought it almost sounded ridiculous. He did admire the banner they hoisted, which showed two dots surrounded by a long oval line, one of the ancient symbols of the Great Destroyer.

Iggy continued to walk along, moving past the parade. "Didn't even let me eat a slice," he muttered to himself. The council's questioning was ruthless and unrelenting to the extent that he didn't have much of the pizza in the end. He felt like eating somewhere to finish his appetite. He saw ahead of him a nice looking restaurant, filled with plants and waterfalls. He wondered how much of the menu was vegetarian.

Walking to the front of the restaurant, he looked at the sign posted at the front. Most of it was berry specials.

"Your family really hates you."

Iggy turned around and saw that it was Penny Crygor. "Yeah? Most of my siblings don't care what I do. Bowser is the one who hates my guts. You went to orientation?"

Penny nodded. "Bowser wouldn't stop asking questions about how I got into the Galaxy. What did you tell him about that?"

Iggy smirked. "That it was my business and not his. The whole chamber went into an uproar." He walked inside the restaurant. "How did you find me?"

"There's a people finder on it you can use after you add someone to your contact list."

"Oh." Iggy walked up to one of the Yoshi's. "Yeah, table for two please."

"Yoshi!" it said, walking around the corner. The two followed it until it stopped next to a table, which was near the edge of a large circular waterfall, falling into a pool below. It made funny Yoshi noises as it gave Iggy and Penny the menus. After the two sat down, it bowed before them in service.

"Yoshi yoshi yoshi." said Iggy, almost humorously. The Yoshi nodded and walked away.

"Were you actually talking to them in their language?" asked Penny.

"No."

"That's mean." She opened her menu and scanned the pages.

"Actually, not really. To completely understand their one worded grunt language, one must understand how even slight variations in the pitch and tones of the word Yoshi can mean completely different things. I don't have the time or the patience for that." He put his notebook down and glanced through the menu.

Penny glanced at it. "But you have the patience to invent whatever it is you're inventing right now."

"That's far more important." He closed the menu and began to make a sketch. "It's for a survival group Luigi invited me to."

"You got that too? I've been trying to think of a good spot that hasn't been taken yet, but can only think of one place."

"Oh?" mused Iggy. "Where would that be?"

"Why would I tell an idea stealer?"

Iggy rolled his eyes. "I did not steal your engine design. But anyway, I can guarantee you, my location is one of the best places in the world for a pole shift shelter. Well, if I can get to it that is." He completed several sets of squares and rectangles on his notepad. "I can think of one other place, but Ludwig is probably hoarding that one."

Penny frowned. "...better than the temple of Inauro?"

"Yes, I was there actually, past and present. It has a good underground capacity for several thousand people, but once the entrance is sealed off, there's no way out of there. It becomes a tomb."

"I know that! I was thinking about making two more exits..."

"Yoshi!" said another yoshi, walking over to the two.

"I think we need to order." Penny looked at her menu again. "I'll have the red berry salad. Oh, and a bowl of guarana juice." The Yoshi made several noises in response.

Iggy tapped the pencil on his notepad. "A Caesar salad, scrambled yoshi egg pizza, a glass of pineapple and coconut juice and another glass of spiced rum on the rocks."

The yoshi slowly nodded before making another grunt and heading off. Iggy scribbled a set of random numbers in the corner and drew an arrow to an empty space on the page, circling the area south of the complex of squares.

"Best if I help you with that." said Iggy.

"Why? I can just get my grandad to make something."

"Because your survival site is in the middle of a huge complex that I'll be digging up. That entire area is almost entirely buried under sand. I knew something was there the whole time, but getting the funding to dig it all up was a problem."

"I thought the temple of Inauro and the surrounding ruin were the only things there."

Iggy shook his head. "For a long time, the tomb of Marthos, 'The Hammer' he was called, has eluded me. He was one of the legendary kings, the kings thought to exist only as a myth and not in reality. Despite that, I kept looking. I sent a high frequency wave across portions of the desert, hoping to get a counter signal of some kind. Most of the complex was said to be encased entirely in titanium, so such a signal would most definitely bounce back. But the desert is a huge place and it wasn't until recently that I stumbled onto something." He tapped his finger in the circle. "That was the first signal bounce and it's been bouncing ever since. Another strong signal appeared just north of the complex." He drew another circle.

"Iggy, why didn't this get published?" said Penny. "If the existence of one of those can be proven, then it means the early history of the Koopa's aren't just a mere legend."

"Lack of funding failed to show any results to prove my point," explained Iggy. "That was thanks to that tyrant's lasting hatred of me. The whole project got shelved as a result and we all continued with our lives. I ended up forgetting about it. The dig would have been more costly than the dig at Birabuto."

"With the Galaxy, you have more than enough to dig this up now."

"Exactly." Iggy glared at Penny. "That's why this must never go public. If Bowser finds out about a shelter far better than his small-minded plans, then I'm done for. Not everyone can be allowed into these places."

Penny sighed.

"I want a group that I can trust. The idea of saving everybody is grand and all that, but if one person can destroy all of it through greed, pride or whatnot, then the whole thing is a failure in the end."

The Yoshi brought the previously ordered drinks for the two, then quickly walked off. Iggy sipped his pineapple and coconut drink and leaned back. "Ahh, this always tastes good."

"Okay," Penny began, "So basically, your survival site is a complex that's mostly underground, but that includes the temple of Inauro, right?"

"Pretty much," said Iggy. "I mean, you can still keep your site, if you want. It's not a big deal to me."

Penny did not reply. She stared at the raging waterfall in front of her, lost in thought. Iggy made a face then went back to his notebook with an idea he just had. "28Hz..." he muttered to himself. That was the frequency which was shot at the south side of the complex. What still puzzled him was that at the time, the complex reflected a signal of 29Hz at him in response. If anything, the bounce should have been weaker, and it was on the northern side, which reflected at a frequency of 14Hz. It made Iggy wonder what the thing was really made of.

Iggy drank from his glass of spiced rum. He had a hard time remembering, but he also recalled that the 29Hz was also not composed of the same wave matter that was sent there. "I don't think I figured that out..." he muttered to himself. He scribbled a note to himself to figure out that dilemma later.

"So, you didn't steal my design.." Penny asked suddenly.

Iggy almost laughed. "You weren't listening, were you? You want me to draw a copy of my design so you'll finally be convinced?"

"Well, no--"

"Then I'll just briefly explain the differences. The hydrogen injectors are a completely different design. Mine is a bottle-nose while yours is more of a straightedge. You also use about 20% more hydrogen than I do, but my recycling system which turns it into a liquid and back is more efficient. There's also the basic differences in shell construction, such as me using Cadmium while you use Aluminum. But here's the biggest difference. Mine doesn't work at all."

She laughed. "Neither does mine." Iggy chuckled with her for a moment. But Penny had to wipe tears from her eyes. "Sorry."

Iggy frowned. He took a sip from his pineapple and coconut juice and tried to calm himself. "It was the whole 'all Koopa's are evil' thing, I know. It would be nice for people to get over that one day."

Penny did not reply. She tried to recompose herself amid sniffles. Iggy looked over at the waterfall in silence, its relaxing ambiance helping him concentrate. It was certainly possible, but...

"You know," Penny started, sitting back up in her seat, "You know I didn't mean all of that."

Iggy smiled. "Yeah. Don't worry, I'm used to it. We had it beat into us when we were kids thanks to Mario's rhetoric."

Penny smiled. She drank from her small bowl of guarana juice. "Good, because I'll be working with you on this."

"That makes things so much easier." Iggy said.

"You think so? I have high expectations of the temple and will probably be nitpicking you the whole time about it."

"Only if you don't agree with my own plans for it."

"Here we go again. The temple is still my site and I already know what I'm doing with it. You better have good suggestions."

"Oh, I do. And I know they will be implemented regardless."

Penny huffed. "Boy, are you overconfident."

Iggy crossed his arms with a smirk. He had a plan.

"Yoshi yoshi!" 2 Yoshi waiters arrived with their meals.

"Thanks guys, but there's been a change of plans. Could you send our entire order to my room?"

"What!?"

"Yoshi!" The Yoshi's nodded.

"I'm sure you guys have my room address."

The Yoshi's waved and walked off. Iggy stood up and stretched. He then noticed Penny staring at him.

"Oh, I figured I could show you what I had planned for the temple. Thing is, the layout for the temple is on one of my laptops. Plus, since you're surrounded by my entire complex, it'd probably be good to learn what I have in store for the area."

"Who said I'd agree to that?" argued Penny.

"I didn't." Iggy admitted. "But you could have rejected my offer just now, but you didn't. If you don't come, I guess I'll just end up eating your food at some point."

Penny made a face.

"Well, hope to see you there." And with that, Iggy walked away, leaving a very irritated Penny sitting alone. "What an asshole." She put her head in her hand and tried to calm herself down, but she found herself more and more unable to sit still. It was a sneaky move for sure, but she was interested what Iggy had in store for her project. There was also the simple fact that he had her food now. And plus...

"Give me a break..." she said to herself, finally getting up and chasing after Iggy.

* * *

After shutting the door, Roy Koopa plopped himself down upon his big leather seat and leaned back.

"I hate that punk." he muttered to himself, staring at the ceiling. In the old days when he was younger, he would've simply knocked Bowser Junior into an unconscious mess. That was before he and the rest of his siblings were forced to act a little more civil due to the coming of age. Playing politics was fun and trolling others was even better, but trolling other trolls was something he tended to stray away from.

Something bigger was on his mind. He turned on the monitor to his computer and plugged in his phone with a cable. Typing for a bit, he gained access to one of the Koopa Space Agency's satellites, designed to discover any close asteroids, or so they say. He plugged in the coordinates he had received earlier on his phone. He hesitated for a second, then pressed enter on his keyboard. Immediately, the satellite repositioned itself to his ascribed position and took a photograph. Seconds later, the result presented itself on Roy's monitor.

"No kiddin'." Why pops didn't tell him about this place was beyond him. It had to be for a good reason, or so he thought. Larry's information spooked him though. Classifying this as top secret made enough sense, but why wasn't he told about something as massive as this? That meant it couldn't be military.

Regardless, Roy knew it didn't matter. He had exposed himself to the information and he'd be collected like Larry was in short time. But he couldn't help but smile to himself. He never liked things to be that easy. With a few more keystrokes, he placed the picture and the coordinates on his phone and disconnected it from his computer. He began to write a text message on his phone. He knew how the game played, but he was stubborn. He couldn't back away from his words at the Golden Koopa, especially not now.

Simultaneously, he opened his fridge and took out a Heineken. Placing it on the counter he grabbed his bottle opener just as he finished the title of his text, "Here it is." He opened the bottle in one swift stroke and took a quick chug. "Only for da weak." he said to himself as he selected the recipients of the message, which included most of his siblings. "Only for da weak..." He clicked send and chugged down his beer. This was going to be one hell of a ride.


	11. 11

Dusk was approaching in the jungle. The outcries of tropical birds ceased, snakes hid in their burrows and many Kremlings were back in their makeshift homes, enjoying roasted parrot over an open fire. There was still one swinging amongst the vines of the trees. Adorned with a red hat and a shirt of the same color, Diddy Kong was headed home after another day looking for bananas to add to the horde. He's been having a hard time lately; many of the banana trees had begun to mysteriously die off. Diddy wasn't sure what was causing it. The jungle received plenty of monsoon rains, in fact more so than usual. He was also on good terms with the Kremlings lately, so he was sure they weren't up to anything. Whatever it was, it disturbed him greatly.

Diddy jumped onto the deck of the Kong tree house that hid amongst the trees. Walking inside, he found that his father Donkey Kong was once again not home. He wondered where he had been going lately, as it was unlike him to travel anywhere after dusk. Not that it was a total bother: he had the kitchen to himself, as well as the shower for once. Diddy crawled to the kitchen and thought about making some banana puree topped with mango and coconut. Unfortunately, that was when he felt the rumble beneath his feet.

"Whaa!" he cried, knowing what that meant. He ran outside of the Kong hut and looked toward the nearby mountain range and saw his fears confirmed. A huge billowing volcanic cloud was seen rising into the air, with lava flowing down the highest peak. But it wasn't until he saw the rampaging animals heading in his direction that he saw the biggest danger.

"Whaaaa!" He bolted away from the bunkhouse as fast as he could, trying to outrun the pyroclastic flow. Many of the Kremlings he ran past were absolutely clueless as to their danger and wondered why so many animals were running before the immense cloud completely over-swept them. Diddy knew he would be safe if he could make it to Funky's Flights. But the flow was inching closer toward him and he also knew his legs couldn't keep up with it.

Thinking of a back up plan, he darted down a ravine to his right, swinging among the tree vines. But a blast of air at that moment made him overshoot his target and he flew into the air with a cry before the volcanic cloud over swept him.

* * *

"Aaaaaaaand...POWER UP, MAN! Three stars, you ain't beating that!"

"Fuck that." Kooper threw his cards at the table. "You have to be cheating, that's not possible!"

Funky Kong let out a large guffaw. "Once in a lifetime hand, I'm telling ya!"

The other players turned over their cards in dismay. Mona crossed her arms with a frown. "I had three fire flowers too."

"It's amazing, man! I've never had a hand so rad in my life!"

"Yeah, we got it." said a slightly annoyed Larry Koopa, tossing his hand into the discard pile.

"You get the honors this week." said Luigi, placing his cards on the table then leaning back with Daisy next to him. "We've had a lot of newcomers to the Galaxy lately."

"Haha, I already have my target." said Funky, leaning back. Several Toad's approached the group with bottles of Don Pinata branded rum. Each member of the group took one of each.

"I love this stuff." Kooper opened his and took a quick chug. "Koopie will go bonkers when she sees this. Anyway, who's your pick of the week, Funky?"

But Funky's eyes were glued to the TV on the far wall.

"Huh?" Kooper looked where Funky was staring at and was quite dismayed. On the television was a live report of what appeared to be a major catastrophe. "The pyroclastic flow just ended moments ago. We know that it swept down through the Japes Valley, where the main Kong residence was supposed to be located-"

"SHIT!" Funky immediately stood up and bolted out of the room, leaving a dazed and silent poker party behind.

"That was just a volcano." Mona muttered to herself. Kooper sighed and played around with his PDA.

"Volcano's can create firestorms." said Ashley, finally speaking up.

"That's true." said Luigi.

"Firestorms?" questioned Daisy. "You mean the kind where fire rains down from the sky and consumes everything?"

"In a way." said Luigi. "It also consumes all the air around it, making it very dangerous. Chances are, if someone is caught in the middle of a firestorm, they probably wouldn't live."

"Oh god, I hope that doesn't happen to me."

Luigi looked back at the television and saw that some of the jungle had already caught fire from the lava flows alone. "I think it would be wise to call it a night. I'll page all of you when the next one will be."

"Good idea." said Larry, looking over at Ashley who was somewhat drooping over. For a moment, he thought about asking to walk her back, but he had things to do at his pad. Besides, he still wasn't entirely sure about her.

After exchanging goodbyes , Larry walked out of the bar and into the greater areas of the Galaxy. Eventually, he reached the central courtyard of the Galaxy where Larry saw Donkey Kong disembarking on one of his shuttles. He looked at his PDA and suddenly facepalmed, shaking his head. He turned around and boarded the shuttle again.

"Wow, it sucks to be the Kong's today." Larry muttered to himself. The disasters were slowly starting to ramp up. Unfortunately, it seemed as though most didn't care what was going on unless it personally affected themselves.

"It doesn't matter." Larry muttered to himself. He walked into the Koopa section of the Galaxy where he passed a bowling store. Being a fan of bowling, Larry couldn't help himself but enter it and see what he could get for himself. Passing by rows of random paraphernalia, he came to the balls and casually looked through the selection. He came across a size 14 ball that was colored in metallic gold and sported a bright blue flame. Thinking it fit with his collection, he picked it up and walked to the cashier.

"Hey, could you send this to my room?" Larry handed the ball to the koopa behind the counter. The Koopa placed it upon a platform which subequently lowered and the ball disappeared. Larry took out his PDA and ran it across a laser scanner, which beeped in response.

"Thank you Larry and have a good day!" said the cashier. Larry waved as he exited the store and headed in the general direction of his room. After a few minutes of walking, he got onto an elevator and pressed the coordinates to his room. Upon arriving, he walked off and stared at his door. He rubbed his eyes as he tried to remember the latest password that he coded into his door.

"Turkey."

"Rejected." chimed a mechanical voice. Red was seen on the display.

"Oh right."

"Rejected."

Larry snorted. He knew it was something special. After some thinking, he finally remembered.

"Black rose."

"Accepted." The door finally opened and Larry entered. Almost immediately upon entry, a giant red and white piranha plant popped out of a warp pipe to greet Larry with a hiss and two giant rows of sharp teeth.

"Hey Ted." said Larry, rubbing the piranha plant's head. Ted hung out its tongue, drooling saliva all over the carpet in anticipation of food.

Larry smirked. "Not yet Ted, I have to do some things first." Ted sulked in response and allowed Larry to pass into his living room, adorned with leather couches and various species of piranha plants lined against the wall, all artificially watered and fed inside their pipes. Off to the sides of the room were the kitchen set up to Larry's right where his bowling ball was sitting atop a platform. Taking it, he walked to the left side of his room where he had a personal bowling alley set up. Placing the ball on a rack, he thought about playing a quick game, but knew he needed to get some things done first.

He turned and walked to the back of the living room with the piranha's snapping at him as he past them. Walking up a few steps, he sat down in his leather seat in front of his massive computer set up, now made up of 12 monitors. Placing his thumb on a fingerprint reader, the system quickly booted up, showing graphs, instant messages and live camera's from various locations on the Mushroom World. The one he was most interested in was the screen on the middle far right, showing a dark stormy sky and a black monstrosity set upon a large mountain amidst a rocky wasteland. Towards the left was an ocean and a lighter sky, with the sun trying to find its way through. In the bottom left of the feed were the words "Eternal Fortress Genlic," Larry's survival shelter for the pole shift. He pressed something on the screen and a large hologram of the feed appeared next to him.

Genlic was truly something out of this world. Much of the fortress was constructed from either a reflective black stone of unknown composition and what could be called a black glass, with ascending tooth-like appendages rising from many of the tops of the walls. According to legend, it was one of the oldest structures on the face of the world. Constructed of an unknown and nearly unbreakable substance, it has stood the test of time over thousands of years and through hundreds of battles. Only a single tower was damaged, allegedly during the reign of Inauro Koopa whose alchemists had found a way to damage it. But that knowledge had since been lost and the impregnability of Genlic returned, its dark atmosphere and hostile lands a major threat to those who would dare to try to overtake the ancient Koopa fortress.

Rumor had reached Larry that the first Koopa of his family, only known as "King Koopa," was buried somewhere within the fortress. He wondered if it was true. But in any case, a Koopa worker stepped in front of the screen and saluted Larry. "Yes sir!"

"How much of the caravan got in today?" asked Larry.

The soldier looked behind him towards a long line of trucks and people heading into the main gate. 'We unloaded another 50 trucks today and about 100 more people were placed into the survival areas."

"Is the greenhouse at the 10,000 quota yet?"

"Yes, I was informed of that this morning. We should have the capacity to feed 50,000 within a few days, sir."

"Good. How about our defenses?"

"We still haven't been able to figure out how to activate them. The...controls simply wont budge."

Larry hummed in thought. "Okay, thank you and keep up the good work."

The soldier saluted. "Sir!" Larry pressed the screen again and the hologram disappeared. Larry was definitely happy now after hearing he had met his quota's for the week. At this rate, Genlic could be a major site for a large number of people. But he still worried about not being able to activate the defensive system. Supposedly, something was required to activate it, but Larry did not know what.

Deciding he was tired, he got up and walked to the right through a set of double doors to his main bedroom, which looked somewhat similar to Iggy's room save the bed, which was round and covered with black and red covers. Stretching, he took off his shell and threw it into the corner. Iggy this and Iggy that took a lot out of him, not to mention the multiple drinks that he had at multiple locations. Groggily walking up to his bed, he allowed himself to lean forward and collapse upon it, happy to be lying down. Walking around the giant behemoth that was the Galaxy was beginning to be exhausting for him. He wondered if he should suggest to Ludwig some type of moving sidewalk like those found at the airports.

* * *

"We received another 300 from the southeastern Mushroom district."

A virtual holographic map was spread upon an icy table, surrounded by Koopas, Mushrooms and other species dressed in winter clothing. On the far end, seated upon a high chair was Lemmy Koopa, the 2nd heir to the throne. He appeared to be only half paying attention, fighting the dreadful spell of sleep. It was only the frigid temperatures of the frozen north that kept him awake. His frantic escape out of the Golden Koopa and his unintentional rescue of a few hundred people made him pretty tired and he'd been unable to gain a wink of sleep since then. While he didn't drink nearly as much as some of his other siblings, he couldn't deny the cravings for some at that moment or anything that could put him out for a while.

"Well, that new trade route should be able to feed them all." said a purple spotted mushroom with pigtails. To Lemmy, she seemed familiar.

"You're Toadette, right?" asked Lemmy.

"Y-yes." she said, looking a bit nervous. Lemmy remembered the disappearance of Toad at that moment. While it was suspected that he had been pulled close towards her highness Princess Peach, he had also completely disappeared from public view near where the new trade route was being set up. The thought made Lemmy remember Roy's message that he had received on his cell before the meeting.

"Alright, I'll let you take care of the logistics and all that stuff."

"Thank you!" said Toadette with a wide smile. Lemmy had guessed correctly.

"Excuse me sir," a Paratroopa flew up next to him. "There are some visitors here to see you at the balcony. They said you know the reason."

Lemmy frowned. He didn't think that he'd be spotted that quickly. He had hoped to at least make some preparations before he was to be nabbed by whatever mafia was controlling things behind the scenes. It made him wonder though. If he was getting nabbed now, then the rest of his siblings must be getting nabbed by now too. Lemmy wondered if this was a part of Roy's plan.

In any case, he turned back toward his people with a huff. "Looks like I have some unofficial business."

"Don't worry, dude." said a light blue Pianta. "We'll totally take care of things here."

"Okay." Lemmy jumped down from his seat and walked out towards the balcony before abruptly stopping. "Hey, you never said why you preferred the north pole verses the beach."

"Oh yeah! I sweat way too much dude, even for a Pianta like me. I still love the surf and the guava man, but I can't shake the squishy feeling, you follow me? I gotta come up here to cool it off."

"Cool." said Lemmy. "I just wouldn't surf these waves unless you like being an icicle. Because, it's kind of cold."

"I bet that feels so awesome..." said the Pianta. Lemmy shrugged and continued walking out to the balcony. He saw a floating vehicle surrounded by Toad's and Koopa's in black.

* * *

Lemmy was seen on one of the screens, seemingly being briefed by the Toad's about his situation. Next to it were many other screens, with the other Koopalings being shown in similar situations. Morton had an unreadable expression on his face. Wendy looked more than a little upset, yelling at her visitors before being forcefully dragged off by the suits.

"This is intolerable." Bowser said under his breath, arms crossed with an annoyed look. On the bottom of the council hall upon a seat was Roy Koopa mimicking the movements of his father, with his arms crossed and seemingly staring into nothingness. The council was still deliberating amongst themselves of this latest development and the hall were filled with the chatter of many conversations.

"It seems to be pretty obvious to me that he simply wanted to show this...unidentified object to his siblings." said Merlin.

"'Unidentified object,' huh?" said Prince Peasley with his trademark grin. "Sounds to me he was being a little irresponsible. With a position like 'Second-in-Command,' I'm sure he's familiar with not talking about things when he's not supposed to."

"Say that to Wario." said Captain Syrup, rolling her eyes.

"What was that, dumb bitch?"

"Shut up, all of you." said Bowser and the council hall immediately fell silent. "This is Koopa business and none of yours." He drank the entire contents of a mug in one gulp before clearing his throat. "Now, the fault here is obviously Ludwig's. I should have never let him make the decision in the first place. You can trust me that such a decision will never be allowed...or made again."

Ludwig Von Koopa said nothing, tapping his claw on the table. His anger was not completely hidden, however.

"Now then," Bowser continued, "Let us question Roy and figure out why he decided to threaten the very existence of the Galaxy itself."

"Being in the military, I'm supposed to know these kinds of things."

"You are not privileged to know, otherwise you would've known by now."

Roy raised an eyebrow as he looked at the many faces of the council. "Really?" he said, smiling. "Heh, you know ya could have pulled dis-info on me instead, right?"

"How dare you—huh?"

"Tell me the music I want to hear. Hell, that would've been better for you then sending me up here and showing me the works. But that's besides da point."

"What the hell is your point?" said an irritated Bowser.

Roy looked out one of the windows on the ceiling. "Everyone's useful. They should make up their own minds about dis. But I say we should stick together. United we stand, divided we fall, that sort of thing."

Bowser grumbled. It was a concept that he had hated for a long time, but he knew Roy had a point. People did have their uses.

"Then I have one more question for you." said Bowser. "Out of the Koopalings you sent the text to, why didn't Junior get one?"

Roy was silent for a moment. "We've been fightin' for a while. I thought it was pretty fair."

"Uh-huh."

"If its that big a deal, I can just text him now."

"No." said Bowser. "If he is anything like me, it would be best if he didn't know right now."

There was silence in the hall. Taking that as agreement, Bowser continued. "In any case, you are now a member of the Galaxy. Your other siblings probably will be too. But like everyone else, you need to be useful here, otherwise you'll be locked up and never see the light of day again."

"That's happened quite a bit." muttered Roy to himself.

"There will be a separate meeting here to address the appointment of a new Second-in Command, among other issues caused by my 'lieutenant.'" He glared at Ludwig, who did not meet his gaze, but continued to tap upon the table.

* * *

There was a door slam, followed by a heavy set of footsteps. A sweet classical tune played in the background, amid the sounds of rivers of lava as well as a large fountain that dominated much of the view. Along the far walls were pictures and ribbons of various achievements, as well as pedestals of various designs holding trophies, works of art, mechanical marvels among many other wonders. The floor was encrusted with beautiful lapis lazuli tile and the ceiling, 150 ft high and bent in the shape of a diamond, softly billowed various degrees of light below its majesty.

Upon reaching the top stair to his main level, Crown Prince Ludwig Von Koopa casually glanced at the many achievements he had procured over the years without much thought. He was too engrossed in his current plans, and too worried about his future. Things had taken their turn far earlier than he had expected. He was not sure if he had miscalculated Bowser's temper, or if something was happening between him and Junior. But it did not matter.

He turned toward the bar to his left, where he found one of his skimpy waitresses smiling at him. "Will it be the usual today, sir?"

"Please." he said, "As well as a chalice of Borgonne. Aged 50 years, and please take into account that it must be from a cask of Delway from that time. I do not know if it's the construction of the cask itself or if it's environmental conditioning, but the flavor that cask presents is very warm and difficult to shake off."

"Of course." She bowed and retreated into his kitchen. Rubbing his eyes, Ludwig sat himself on one of the many white sofa's that faced the far wall: a solid window itself, presenting a marvelous view of the universe. Ignoring it, Ludwig pressed a few buttons upon a large cylindrical device upon the floor above him. After a moment, a large hologram of the Mushroom World was brought into full view, complete with roads, cities rivers and mountains. Pressing another button showed every natural disaster that was currently occurring. There were at least 10 across the world at that moment, including significant earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and irregular weather phenomenon.

Ludwig leaned back in his sofa, unabated. While the disasters have stepped up a notch, they did little to interfere with his current plans. His secret project also went unhindered so far. Being walled up in an old mountainous region, he knew he was relatively safe until the last days. But his thoughts were interrupted by a call on his PDA. Grumbling on the fact that he forgot to turn it to silent mode, he pulled it out and saw it was a call from Luigi.

"Well, this is quite unexpected," said Ludwig, "That is unless you plan on coercing me into your poker mastermind once again."

"I can say that the vote against you was quite unexpected, too."

"Hm?"

"There was a special council meeting soon after Roy's initiation ceremony. Initially, it was to decide who the next Second-in-Command of the Koopa Empire would be. But neither you nor the other Koopalings were present. Did you get an invite from Bowser?"

"I did not." Ludwig had a bad feeling about this, despite the fact that he knew where it was going.

"That's not good. At first, I figured since it was some high level Koopa business, that only you and Bowser may be present. But it was only Bowser, Kamek and a select group of the council that were there and it was not many of us, 10, 15 at most. It was decided that you were unfit to retake your former position. Instead, the position was given over to Bowser Junior."

Ludwig frowned. "I'm not surprised. But tell me, was there only a singular vote during the process and did this vote come from a highly selfish and arrogant individual?"

"Yes, there was only one vote and it came from Bowser, how did you know?"

"Trust me, I am exceedingly superfluous at Koopa politics."

"I see. Well, unfortunately, that wasn't the bad news."

"Oh?"

"After the vote, how can I put this..." There was silence for a moment. "There's no real easy way of saying it. Bowser called into question your status of Crown Heir of the Empire."

"What?"

"He wanted to give the title to Junior, and so had a vote on that as well. It was unanimous, or so he says. But the whole thing was very rigged and unprofessional. It didn't matter what we said, it was like talking to a wall. And there were no elected officials there either, it was just the 10 of us or so. Anyway, Junior is apparently Crown Heir of the Empire now, starting immediately."

Ludwig was silent for a moment. Two waitresses appeared and brought out a table, and placed upon it a glass of whiskey, a golden chalice filled with a red wine as well as a plate of penne pasta mixed in a white sauce. Without looking at them, he nonchalantly waved his hand and the two quickly bowed and proceeded out of the room. There was silence as he downed more than half of his whiskey.

"Hey, are you still there?"

Ludwig put his glass on the table. "Quite."

"Well, I figured I should tell you. The whole thing seemed to be pretty unfair, after all. Then again, I don't know much about inner Koopa politics, despite being pulled into all of this."

"I will be honest with you, Luigi." said Ludwig. "The entire stunt was most definitely an illegal action."

"Illegal action?"

"Certain members of the senate as well as the higher members of the Magikoopa council must be present at such meetings, especially when deciding upon such a large position. Other members must be present as well, such as members of the family trust, the exchequer, 3 of the highest military generals, amongst others. To say that this is an usurp of power would be an understatement."

"Huh. Well, you don't sound too angry about it."

"Angry?" Ludwig entertained the thought. "I've been angry at the possibility of this occurring ever since the manifestation of Junior. The anger flows back into time for many years, but I will tell you this: that this situation was not a surprise to my person, in fact, I entirely expected this sort of event to transpire. It was only a matter of time. Everything is happening, more or less, in the manner I predicted. Reality will become an interesting place very soon, but I'm sure you're wise enough not to tell Bowser that upon seeing his ruthless corruption in play."

"Of course. Oh yes, there was something else I wanted to tell you."

"What, that there is now an assassination plot against me? That would be most entertaining."

"Well, it was supposed to be a surprise. But she's headed to your room now. Crap, I got to go, Daisy is nagging me."

"She?" But Luigi had already hung up. Ludwig was not sure just what Luigi had meant at first. He drank the rest of his glass and thought who it could be. It wasn't long before he remembered. "Wait...no, that's wishful thinking." He was forced to break it off due to circumstances beyond his control. But he had always hoped that-

The doorbell rang, interrupting his thoughts. Ludwig was about to ask one of his waitresses to answer the door until he heard the door slam far behind him. There was only one person he could think of that would enter someone's room unannounced in that fashion. Ludwig got up from his seat and looked at the hallway behind him. Sure enough, up the steps walked Kylie Koopa, with her trademark green hat and a big smile on her face.

"This," Ludwig stammered. "This is a complete surprise!"

"Aww, you never expected to see me again?" said Kylie. "You know, I can't just live with 'that's a secret you can never know.' Because that's not the way it works." She walked up to him and gave him a peck on the lips before giving him a hug. "I missed you so much."

"I'm surprised you went along with my Morton idea."

"Oh, and I'm going to so grill you for that, but not right now."

"Good, as I am experiencing as they term it, 'one hell of a day.'"

"I know. I overheard most of that council meeting."

"Did you?" He smirked.

"Yeah. All I have to say that your dad is an asshole."

"That goes without saying." Ludwig broke the hug and sat back down in his former spot, with Kylie sitting next to him.

"To be anywhere within the higher echelons of the Koopa Empire, one must be some degree of an asshole."

"But your dad is a menace. He had no right to just strip you and place everything on his little clone of his."

"He has his right as a cruel and dominating despot. But that doesn't matter."

"Oh, is this part of your plan, too?"

"The one I briefly touched upon before I left, yes."

Ludwig made a motion with his arm and a waitress was back out next to him again. "Can I get you anything?" she asked.

"I see you've been having some fun while I was gone." said a suspicious Kylie, eying the waitresses skimpy maid uniform.

"One can make as many assumptions as they wish," said a smiling Ludwig, "But the fact of the matter is that there's simply no physical evidence."

"What are you talking about? You see that?" Kylie pointed at the Koopa's forehead. "She's sweating! There's only one reason for that."

"You're clearly making her nervous, Kylie." said Ludwig. "And I strongly doubt that her job description had the word 'fuck toy' anywhere within the inscription."

"Um..." The waitress looked extremely nervous.

"Of course it doesn't! Those jobs don't need an explanation."

"It is also true that you're giving her ideas of doing something other than her job description dictates."

Kylie folded her arms. "Yeah, whatever."

"Not that I wouldn't mind that of course, but I digress."

"Oh, so you do fuck her on a consistent basis?"

"I...um...I'm here to serve you, master!" said the waitress, bowing low. Ludwig almost laughed. He enjoying pissing off Kylie once in a while.

"Yes, I would like, ahem, a glass of the DeBourgeis."

"Give me a Bourbon."

"Yes sir!" The waitress finally walked back into the kitchen.

"Seriously, how many maids have you screwed since I was gone?" asked Kylie.

"Seriously, do you expect me to do nothing but masturbate furiously until your return? That's too petty for me."

Kylie sighed. "Yeah, I know. I'm just worried that you just have a relationship with one of them, that's all."

Ludwig snorted. "Of course not. They are simply useful for tasty meals and an occasional quickie at my discretion. I've not had a relationship since that...most unfortunate encounter."

Kylie frowned and leaned her head on his shoulder. "But ours never ended, did it?"

Ludwig looked at her and knew she was right.

"You can't just go off saying I can't know something, and expect my love for you to end right there."

"It grieved me too. I had no choice in the matter."

"You could have just told me about all of this, I wouldn't have said a thing."

"And risk life imprisonment on the 8th dungeon level? Many other people needed me when I was building the Galaxy. I hated it, but it was a sacrifice I had to take."

"..."

"Besides, it worked out in the end for both of us. All of my siblings now know the truth and will be able to live in freedom instead of ignorance."

"Wait..." Kylie thought to herself. "You were the one that was sending those messages out?"

Ludwig smiled. "Sometimes I am impressed by my own brilliance. The message from Larry was genuine, but I did tell him to send such a thing. Roy's picture is his own, but I secretly sent him the satellite coordinates so he'd be able to see it for himself. You eventually saw my messages and figured things out on your own, just like I hoped you would. The rest has fallen into place."

Kylie smiled. "Nothing really changed then." And they kissed, not caring how much time they passed. Eventually they broke away, with Ludwig pressing a few buttons on his console. The globe was replaced with a model of what appeared to be some type of castle, yet it looked almost nothing like one.

"What's this?" asked Kylie.

"My top secret project. Bowser has no knowledge about this, Kamek has no knowledge about this, not even my siblings know about this. You are the first one to know, so to speak."

"Your pole shift shelter?"

"That's but one purpose it shall provide." Ludwig said, grinning widely. "I must increase the production speed and it should be completed within a week."

"Cool." Kylie got up. "Can I use your shower? I'm getting tired."

"It's that way." Ludwig pointed to a doorway on the right side of the room and Kylie walked off toward it. He was getting tired himself, but he knew he had to modify Ludwig Castle plus take care of some other things before retiring for the evening. Another button brought up a cam, showing a Koopa wearing a hard hat. "Yes sir!" it responded.

"How long until main construction phase is complete?" asked Ludwig.

"It will take about 2 weeks, maybe 3 due to those external temperature oscillators."

"I need the main phase to be completed within a week. Several unfortunate events came up and security is now top priority."

The Koopa nodded. "Understood. The main engines are done and most of the teleportation systems can be completed by that time."

"Good, just make sure that and life support systems are not to be cut from production times. Those are critical. That also includes the synthetic food generation systems."

"Roger that, sir!"

The com fizzled out, leaving Ludwig pondering to himself for a few moments. But at length, he decided to prepare himself for sleep as well. Now that Kylie had found her way back to him, there was no need to take advantage of his maids any longer.

After writing a few emails to a moving company and a few other recipients, he decided to retire for the evening. Ludwig got up from his comfortable position on the sofa and walked to his bedroom. The usual extravagant flair was also present in this room, albeit with a more artistic touch with curvy pillars and sleek walls casting various shadows across the room. Spotlights in the ceiling cast soft light here and there, illuminating some of the incense smoke from the corner of the room. In the same corner was a small stream of drinkable water, continuously flowing on a cyclic path.

Ludwig smelled a sweet steam coming from his bathroom. Thinking for a moment, he grabbed a glass and dipped it into his artificial stream. Drinking half of it, he placed it on the counter and quietly slipped out of his shell and boxers. Walking to the bathroom door, he silently opened it and saw the silhouette of Kylie washing herself behind the curtain. Grinning like a hunter eying his prey, he slowly approached and at the right moment, pushed his claw behind the curtain and gave her butt a good squeeze.

"Eeeeek!" She flinched before quickly turning around. "Bastard!"

Ludwig chuckled and reached into a cabinet next to him, pulling out a jar of what appeared to be tiny stars with eyes. "It has been a while since I've used any of these for my own...personal use."

"Use what?" She looked behind the curtain, but Ludwig was not there.

"These." She turned around and found him behind her in the shower, holding up a jar of little star beings that made high squealing noises. Kylie was about to say something, but Ludwig cut her off. "And as this shower is my personal property, using it is a privilege, not a right."

Kylie crossed her arms. "I guess that's what I get. But those star...things, they remind me of what Mario was talking about after he got back from one of his adventures."

"These are Lumas," said Ludwig, "Faithful servants to the Galaxy system. Everything here was built by them. They recognize the difficulty we must go through and are more than willing to submit themselves."

"You know I can read between the lines. You just collected a huge amount and put them inside a jar! I don't think they'd appreciate that."

"While true, they are still more than willing to give us more powerful beings a helping hand when required." He opened the jar and out flew a couple of them, flying overhead.

"Whew, thank you for letting us out!" said a yellow Luma. "It was getting cramped in there! We definitely could use some more flying space."

"Don't worry, we'll get you a playpen or something." said Kylie.

"If that's the case, then it is going inside of your room." said Ludwig.

"The room that doesn't exist?"

"Until now. Initiate Plan K." said Ludwig, smirking.

"Yes sir!" said the Luma. "Time to TRANSFORM!" It then flew out a window above and transformed somewhere on the other side of Ludwig's massive apartment.

"Um, so you just made me a room here?"

"Quite."

"Without knowing what I really wanted in it, right?"

"Oh, I know exactly what you want." He winked at the Luma, who promptly transformed into a launch star. "I would advise holding on."

"Are you Craaaaa-" screamed Kylie as the naked couple launched through the window and into space. They flew far from Ludwig's apartment and the many cargo ships were like little specks in the distance. After some time, they landed upon a small planetoid covered in white sand and pristine teal waters with a forest of palm trees. Colorful stars and galaxies danced overhead in many shades and hues. A small wind brushed by their faces as small waves broke across the beach. Kylie was stunned, forgetting her nakedness for a moment.

"This...this is-"

"Yes. I designed my dream paradise long ago and never imagined it could become a reality, until I met the Lumas. The Luma who made this was exceptionally intelligent for a creature of its kind. With the current environment, a personal retreat is almost a requirement. You're the first person to know the existence of this place." He walked to beach chair next to him, which was overshadowed by a shade and a table next to it. He grabbed a pina colada from the table cup holder, which immediately refilled itself with another. He took a sip and stared at the endless ocean along with Kylie, who seemed lost in thought.

"Well, is this what you wanted?" asked Ludwig.

"Yes, but..." She turned to face Ludwig and smiled. "...I want a something that's a little more..."

He caressed her then with a smile on his face. "Like this?" And they kissed under the gleaming stars, escaping the doom that hung over them, if only just for a moment. And the best thing about living amongst the stars was that no matter where you are, no one can hear you scream.

"Mmh..."


	12. 12

A dog on his hind legs stepped up to the plank. Wearing a pirates hat and a leather strap across his belly, the chocolate lab looked more than a little ridiculous. He was suddenly poked from behind with a saber and the lab walked forward.

"Arr! You best be tellin' us where that treasure is!" barked another pirate dog. Behind him, the entire crew barked in approval. "Or else, yer missie will be joining ya in the drink!"

The lab looked over at his missie, a white lab with longer hair and a bow on her head. "Don't tell them!" she pleaded.

"Shut yer mouth!" With a paw, the evil pirate dog punched missie in the face and she fell on her side and simply lay there on the deck.

"Hahahahaha!" Lemmy rolled back and forth in amusement. Somehow, this was the most entertaining thing he could find: a stack of old black and white dog shows from the Chai black market. They were probably bootlegs since they never seemed to look good in any higher resolution, but Lemmy didn't really care. As impressive as the galaxy was, he knew it for what it was worth: a secret club for runaway escapists. Lemmy thought that the best thing to do was to enjoy himself as much as possible until the world came to an end.

His phone rumbled. Snatching it, he saw that it was his own reminder to himself. "Guess it's time for the big surprise." he said, unsure of himself.

* * *

Lemmy approached the beckoning double doors to the meeting room. After halting for a moment, they opened inward and Lemmy saw a large room, filled with the chatter of many people and many races. In the center of the room was a very large circular table with a similar design to the one at the Golden Koopa which Lemmy ate at. This table was much larger and accommodated much more than a dozen people. From a glance, it seemed to be able to house at least 50 people.

Lemmy ripped his attention away from the table for a moment and looked at all the people around him. He recognized several people from the Mushroom Kingdom, including Toad and the Mario Brothers, who seemed to be in hot debate about something. He also saw some not-so-common people, including Price Peasley talking and laughing with the princesses, the Kong's aping away in a corner, Goombella chatting with what appeared to be Penny Crygor and many other people. Most seemed to be engaged in some type of conversation.

Half frowning, Lemmy looked at the table again. Few people were seated there, but as his eyes scanned the seats, he saw his brother Iggy seated on the northwest end dabbling with something. Not far by him was Larry, who was standing next to his seat and talking with a young girl. If Lemmy remembered right, her name was Ashley.

As Lemmy approached them, Iggy seemed to become more irritated to the point that he rose from his seat and approached the duo. Lemmy wisely decided to stop for a moment.

"I'm pretty sure you have the wrong Koopaling," said Iggy. "Because Larry doesn't remember ever talking with you before the Galaxy. But you know, it's funny because I remember something about you last night. Like I've talked with you before, but I don't remember when or where."

"I saw a rock golem being constructed by a Koopaling." said Ashley. "I don't remember the face, but it was surrounded by a purple aura."

Iggy suddenly snapped his finger. "You know, I betcha that's it! It could have been a memory loss spell." He paused for a few moments. "Stop by my room tonight. I think I'll be able to unravel this mystery now that I know what the problem is."

Ashley nodded and walked off. Larry breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm glad my part in this is over."

"Yeah." said Iggy. "It's all magic after this."

"Great...you know I'm not good at that stuff."

Lemmy shook his head. Whatever that was, he didn't want to know. He had heard about Ashley's prowess with death magic and that aspect of her creeped him out. He never really liked her. "Aye eye eye." He walked forward to his seat before Iggy finally noticed him.

"Hey, did you just listen to that whole thing?" he asked, a little annoyed.

"No..." Lemmy said sarcastically. "I was just standing here minding my own business. Or, at least trying to." Lemmy grinned, but Iggy rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, I don't even like Ashley." he added.

Iggy shrugged. "I guess it's not that important." He sat back down and Larry sat to his right. Getting the drift, Lemmy moved to Iggy's left and found several pillows already on his seat to make up for his small size (despite some growth in the past few years, he was still half a body shorter than his siblings). He climbed on top of them and looked about him. It was a like the deluxe edition of the Golden Koopa, where a machine similar to the one in his room was set up next to him to bring him his food. And at first glance, the menu on the touch screen seemed to be much larger as well. Despite the vanity, he couldn't help a growing a feeling of deja vu.

Lemmy sighed and looked at the crowds casually, slightly bored. He wondered what he should do to make up the time until the meeting began.

"You have a survival spot?" suddenly asked Iggy.

"Yeah." said Lemmy, leaning back in his seat.

"...In the arctic?"

"Uh-huh!"

Iggy looked puzzled, but Lemmy laughed. "It's a surprise. You'll see!"

"I'll admit Lemmy, I never thought of that. Then again, who would live in..." he murmured to himself and fell silent. A moment later, Professor stepped up from his seat.

"Welcome everyone, ho-ho! Please seat yourselves so we can begin."

Slowly, the talking groups broke off and seated themselves around the massive table. Lemmy had a hard time recognizing some of them; clearly, they were from the outer reaches of the world where the Koopa Kingdom had no knowledge in. To Lemmy's surprise however, his older brother Ludwig was not seen anywhere. While Bowser was also absent, he sort of expected that as Bowser hated working for others. He sat up as best as he could and looked to the head of the table where E. Gadd was, between the Mario Brothers.

Once everyone was seated and the talking had died to a low murmur, E. Gadd glanced around the table before continuing. "Hoho! As I said, welcome! This is the first Galactic Survival conference and I'm glad you could all make it. As you have all heard and seen with your own eyes, the Destroyer of legend has returned and the next pole shift is upon us. Civilization, entire cultures and races are threatened with extinction, yet the people in this room have decided to fight for their survival. By committing to such acts of bravery-"

"We know Gadd." butted in Mario.

"Ah of course, hoho!" laughed a nervous Gadd. "Then I will get down to the meat and bones of it. After much extensive research, I have determined the severity of the shift and what lands will be affected and how. But before I present that, it would be good to go around the table and talk a little bit about your self and what you're doing to help. We'll start with Mario and work our way around clockwise."

And that's how the first hour went. Mario got up and explained his shelter underneath the Mushroom Kingdom castle which could hold several hundred if need be. Luigi explained his shelter in Sarasaland with Daisy and talked about how hard it was for him to choose between his brother and his love.

"Sappy." Larry muttered to himself.

"We're going to be in the same shoes." said Lemmy.

"That's inevitable at this point." commented Iggy.

Peasley talked about his plan, Goombella talked about hers and the conversations slowly circled around the table. Since Lemmy and his siblings were seated on the right side of the table, they'd be one of the last ones to show off their projects. Whether it was deliberate or not Lemmy didn't know, but the Koopa's were not well liked by many races around the world.

Lemmy ordered a fruit smoothie out of boredom as he listened to Mona's plan for Diamond City. Apparently, Wario had abandoned the whole project because there wasn't much money involved. Lemmy was not very surprised. She talked about trying to throw something new together.

"And that's it! Your turn," she said, with a motion towards Larry before sitting down.

Larry got up and surveyed the room. Everyone was silent and looking at him intensively, and many looked cautious. He knew this was big news, originally being Ludwig's shelter of choice before he changed his mind. Its importance made him remember to be careful of what he said.

"Hello," he said, "I'm Larry Koopa and I suck."

Some laughter was heard around the table. "We already knew that." came a voice. "You're one of the sons of Bowser. One of the annoying ones."

"Yes, I am annoying." said Larry. "Always getting in your way. And once again, I have to get in your way. Granted, it was not my original choice."

After pushing a button, the center of the table glowed and a white spherical hologram appeared in mid air. The light turned into dark and the smooth, claw-like pinnacles of Genlic appeared amidst a stormy backdrop. The vision paned out and Genlic was showed in its entirety, a menacing black fortress atop a stony hill, surrounded by an inhospitable landscape that carried the rolling echos of constant thunder.

"This is the Eternal Fortress Genlic. Some of you may have heard of it, but it's one of the most important sites in our ancient history. This was originally the site of choice for my older brother Ludwig, but some of you may remember him giving it to me a couple of weeks ago. He has since started his own project and I do not know much about it.

In any case, there are written records of Genlic surviving multiple pole shifts in the past with little to no structural damage. The only major damage was from 3 or 4 shifts ago when one of the towers was destroyed by a powerful magic weapon that since has not been duplicated. To be honest, I have no idea what this thing is made out of. It resembles some sort of black glass, sort of like obsidian but hard as a stone. I remember Iggy taking a test of it a long while back and he has no clue what it is."

"I remember that." chimed in Iggy. "That's still one the few mysteries I have yet to unravel. But if you look close, you can see a rainbow of colors flowing within the rock itself so I think it may be magic based."

"That would explain a lot." said Larry. "Considering that nothing modern can even nick the thing. But enough about its shell. Let's take a look at its insides."

The picture traveled from the lightning spectacular to a level-based diagram, showing the layers within and beneath the fortress.

"Here, I first want to point out the extensive irrigation and agricultural system that I've set up here. For those who actually know me better than being the front man of an invasion, gardening is pretty much the love of my life. So when this came up, I went to work straightaway on it. As you can see, the agricultural section takes up 3 entire levels beneath the fortress. Water is drawn up from the underground aquifer system from the deeper levels to irrigate the crops."

"Wait, crops?" asked Mona.

"Yes, crops. Right now, I have corn growing at half stock, as well as a fresh supply of tomatoes that came in. Of course the usual mushrooms are stored here, though I am not a fan of them. I just planted a whole row of 1-ups a few days ago. If anything, those need to be saved especially."

"Dude, this place sounds like a city." said Kooper. "You do suck. How did you get this again?"

"Ludwig gave it to me."

"Ah, inheritance."

"Yeah," Larry continued, "All in all, combined with the total food stock and possible living quarters, I'd say roughly...15,000 people can live here comfortably."

Whistles went around the room with that figure, though some remained skeptical and scratched their chins in thought.

"I hate to break your terrific speech, but we must continue." said E. Gadd. "You have already taken up more than your allotted time."

Larry huffed. "Alright." He turned to Iggy, who was studying the diagram in the center before it disappeared from view.

"Wow," Iggy began, "I am impressed. You're way ahead of me."

"I think Genlic is just impressive as it is." said Larry.

"That's true. I almost forgot how awesome it was. I've been too focused on my project. It's of a vastly different scope than yours, as you will see in a second." Iggy than got up from his seat.

"I'll admit, this started as a archeology project years ago, when the world ending wasn't such a huge deal. Back then, I lost money for the project by the king's lack of interest and it was shelved. But with this whole free money system going on now, which is pretty nice by the way, I finally restarted the project again and realized how awesome it would be as a pole shift shelter. Plus, the complex is really cool."

The hologram shifted again, this time to a bright blue sky that eventually paned downwards to a massive dig site in the middle of the desert. Surrounded by excavation equipment, the site featured a number of temples adorned with hieroglyphics situated around a central complex. But the building that stood out most was the Pyramid of Marthos which was almost entirely covered in smooth white limestone, except for the capstone which was made entirely of quartz crystal.

"Now THAT is one sweet hangout, baby!" roared Funky Kong. "But I'd throw out that flimsy rock and put a gigantic banana up there instead!" All the kongs aped loudly in response to his sentiment. Many others, including Mario simply face palmed.

"Mama Mia." he muttered. "Keep your bananas to yourself."

"I keep mine to myself." replied Iggy. "And unless you join my club, you wont get a taste of my harvest."

Funky laughed hard until a hairy fist went intimate with his face, knocking him unconscious.

"Thank you DK." said Iggy. "Though that made me hungry." He bit off a slice of Piranha Plant pizza. "Now as you can see here, this complex is gigantic and we haven't fully excavated everything yet...we being myself and miss Crygor over there. She had originally picked the temple of Inauro until I found it was a part of this site that I uncovered."

"That's correct." said Penny, interrupting him. "I chose it because the Inauro site is situated on top of the Koopahari aquifer. Water will be plentiful there and I've already started to grow food in the lower levels."

"But it's still in the desert," said Luigi, "And that's a harsh place to live. Water may be plentiful, but if you run out of food what will you do?"

"I built a hydroponics laboratory in the lower levels." said Penny. "I wanted to build a ecosystem that can sustain itself and I have nearly gotten to that point. As long as the water lines are okay and the area is secure, it can easily survive after the shift."

"But why the desert?" asked Luigi.

"I found something interesting when I was calculating the worldwide effects of the shift itself." said Iggy. "When the shift occurs-"

"Sorry Iggy, but I must ask you do not speak of it at this time." interrupted E. Gadd. "I will talk about it when we are finished introducing our selves. But I have to add that I'm pleased I'm not the only one to discover this, hoho!"

"Heh. Sorry Luigi, but your answer is in another presentation."

"I was just thinking that my meatballs are in another restaurant." said Mario, poking at them. "But it sounds like E. Gadd has something up his sleeve."

"Hoho! Indeed I do, but we still have one more person to introduce." Iggy sat down, somewhat content by his performance despite that his site wasn't really finished yet. The room then turned to Lemmy Koopa, sitting on a stack of pillows with his lazy eyes staring at something far away.

"This is pretty interesting." he began. "You have everyone together in one room at once, all nations in one room. When was the last time this happened?"

He was met with silence and blank stares. He then shrugged and smiled. "Then all those squabbles meant nothing. I'm just glad to see that. My father left a bad mark of karma during his rule and I must balance out what he's done." He leaned forward and pressed several buttons. The hologram once again shifted and a cloudy sky appeared, and the vision turned until a great sea of snow and ice was seen amidst a blinding blizzard.

"This is my home." he said. "It's pretty chilly. Oh, and before you even ask, I really don't expect many people wanting to join me here."

"Then why show this off?" asked Toad.

"Because this is for the cool dudes. There's not a lot of cool dudes. And I have a gut feeling about this place..." The picture morphed into a monolith half buried in the snow. "That's it. It has its own furnace that still works. There's also a calendar that-"

"This is worse than Iggy's." muttered Don Pianta. "Why would I freeze myself when I can be enjoying some fine time in the Yoshi Isles?"

"And food is impossible there." said Goombella. "You'd have to go with Penny's strategy to get anything out of it, except its far more difficult for you because of the cold."

E. Gadd scratched his chin. "Out of curiosity, what is the real reason you chose this place?"

"I had a weird dream awhile ago. I saw the apocalypse and all that, the skies were red and the ice beneath me cracked in all directions. And I literally slid down the world, if that makes any sense. I hit the ground and woke up...but my gut says this is not quite a lie."

"Interesting...very interesting. I will still put you on the list of survival shelters."

"Why bother? It's obvious no one is interested." said Pinata.

"I'm sorry, but I am interested. And for that question, I shall now begin my presentation." E. Gadd coughed to himself. "After I'm done here, you may want to rethink your plans, hoho!" The old doctor got up and pushed a button on his console. The hologram shape shifted into the spitting image of the world. All the oceans, mountains and valleys were visible, from the desolate and dark Koopa Kingdom in the north to the green fields of the Mushroom Kingdom in the center of the world. The Koopahari Desert was clearly seen in the northwest, an offshoot of the main Koopa continent. Across the ocean between the desert and the Mushroom continent was Kong Island, a tiny spec from space but labeled on the hologram like all else. Not far from this was the Beanbean Kingdom. South of the Mushroom Kingdom were the Yoshi Isles, numerous and uncountable. To the east of the Mushroom continent across another ocean were various lands: in the center was the bustling Diamond City and to it's extreme north, on the edge of the continent not far from the Koopa Kingdom lay Genlic in a cloud of smoke and purple fire. To the extreme northeast, almost on the other side of the globe lay Sarasaland and its tributaries. There were many other lands there that Lemmy had never heard of, but the old doctor was on his mind at that moment. For some reason, he was interested in his site.

"Hoho, the world as we know it today. Now I'm sure many of you know about the disasters that the pole shift will cause. Floods, earthquakes, crazy weather, tornadoes, that cup of tea. What you may not have been told is what exactly the Great Destroyer will be doing as it passes our planet and exits the planetary system.

"Due to the forces of magnetic attraction, our planet will become interlocked with the Destroyer. During this time it will appear in the sky and by this point the masses will be panicking, so you should have your shelters ready to go before this time arrives. As the Destroyer tries to pass our planet, the magnetic bond will cause great disasters as the continental plates crush and grind against each other, trying to escape the bond the Destroyer has over them. And then, SNAP!"

All of the attendees that had fallen asleep from the scientific babble suddenly awoke at that. E. Gadd pressed a red button on his console, and at that moment the globe suddenly jerked and all the continents moved wildly about. Some slammed into each other, instantly creating new mountain chains, but all experienced gigantic tidal waves washing ashore the lands as the ocean tried to keep up with the sudden movement. And once the continents stopped moving, a time lapse followed where jungles became temperate forests and vice-versa, previously ice covered lands suddenly became covered with life again and new lands over the poles became covered with immense glaciers. Nearly all the civilizations that were on the previous globe were no longer visible. The whole world literally looked upside down.

Many around the table gaped in awe and others were hurriedly talking with others, clearly not expecting something so unexpected. Iggy did not look surprised at all, and instead looked around the table in curiosity. Larry and Lemmy however had no knowledge of this and looked rather surprised. Lemmy especially wondered if this was the reason why E. Gadd was interested in him.

"Hoho! Not what you expected, right? As you think, this may slightly alter your plans. But before I answer any questions, I would like to explain in general how each continent and kingdom will do after the shift occurs.

"When the shift occurs, the Destroyer breaks hold of his magnetic attraction to our planet by breaking the crust from our mantle. This swings the continents around...roughly 90 degrees to their former position. At least this makes the new world map rather easy to make, hoho! As a side note, I will be giving each of you a copy of this map before you leave. But after the shift occurs, the Destroyer leaves our system for good and the survivors can help rebuild the world. But now, the kingdoms. How well will they do?

"The Mushroom Kingdom is a bit of a mixed bag. As we all know, it is a rather horizontal land with not much in the north and an ocean to the south. Here, the west and the east becomes northern temperate, so forests will be likely while the center of the Kingdom, where your castle resides Peach is likely to be a lush jungle."

"Well, that's not so bad." said Mario.

"You will have to get used to a very humid climate with no air conditioning and unusable roads."

"Ok, that's a problem."

"Remember Mario, the tidal waves that occur during the shift will sweep away any civilization along the coastlines. Technology will not be useable for quite a while. What you bring with you is all you will have left, depending on any damage that the shelter may get.

"But moving on, you can see that the Yoshi Isles will no longer be in such a tropical climate. Cooler, but not nearly as hot. They will be very close to the former northern edge of the eastern continent, or the Fortress Genlic."

Larry and Yoshi looked at each other with curious glances.

"Needless to say that Genlic will be a little warmer than it is now. But it is hard to imagine what the weather would be like for that region. Diamond City will actually see little change in climate. But, it is susceptible to tidal waves, being near an ocean port on its western side.

"The Koopa Kingdom will suffer the most catastrophes because of its position. Most of that civilization lies on the southern coast, while the rest of the continent is either fiery mountain chains or frozen in the north. Since Koopa City lies on the southeast coast, the floods will not be as bad but the area will be very cold, nearly arctic after the shift. It will be uninhabitable. The Koopahari will become even hotter, however the weather patterns will change drastically and will bring a lot of rainfall and plant growth. As for the arctic, it will rotate to a much warmer climate, more temperate."

Everyone in the room looked very quiet and thoughtful by the time E. Gadd finished speaking. "Well, that's what I wanted to cover." he said. "I'm sure many of you will readjust your plans after seeing this. Just remember that things will gradually be getting worse, so supplies for your shelter may not always be available. It's better to act early before commerce and industry begins to shut down. Well, that's all I wanted to cover, so again I thank you for attending and will let everyone know when the next meeting will be."

Talking recommenced and many stood up from their chairs to stretch. Larry let out a long yawn. "Wow." he exclaimed. "I'm going to live next to the Yoshi's. That's going to suck."

"Maybe." said Iggy. "Or they might help you out. They certainly liked me."

"They hated Bowser, so I was thinking it'd rub off on me, seeing I'm one of his sons and all that."

Iggy shrugged. "They really didn't mind me when I went to eat at one of their restaurants, not even when I faked their language. I wouldn't worry about it. By the way Lemmy," he looked over to him, "That was a strange choice, but after the tectonic movements it works out in the end."

"It's because of what's inside it." said Lemmy.

"Oh? Something interesting?"

"Well, for you it would be. It'd kinda bore everyone else."

"Ancient stuff?"

"Yeah. Weird ancient stuff. I can't read any of it." said Lemmy.

"If I have the time, I'll take a look at it. It's strange that there's something built so far up there...but after seeing that globe spin, it was probably built sometime in the distant past when the area was warmer." Iggy got up. "Well, I got stuff to do. See you."

"Me too." Lemmy hopped down from his pillow tower. "I need to finish my movies!" He thought to himself, "At least there wasn't an earthquake this time!"

"Later guys." Larry said, getting up from his seat. The trio split directions, Lemmy immediately exited the room, too excited to finish his dog pirate movie. Larry turned to leave, but was stopped short by a hand on his arm. It was Mona.

"Yo," she said, looking around. "I need to talk to you."

"Yeah?"

"Wario's been a greedy little shit lately and hasn't been cooperating. I told him the plans, that we gotta work together to build this thing. But he wants to run the whole show and squeeze a profit. He will do anything to make a coin and that doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that he doesn't share any of it."

Larry read between the lines. "Things aren't working out with him?"

Mona frowned. "I figured he would come around when push came to shove, but that ain't happening Larry. He'll stick with his ways until the end."

"Then you gotta decide which is more important. Him, or the people you want to save."

"I already decided. But I can't stay with him anymore, so I have no idea where to go. You know I made that place with him. People can't be run like slaves, that's not how it works. I have to bring them somewhere else."

Larry sighed. "So you want the folk of Diamond City to stay at Genlic...How many?"

"I only have about 2,200 that want to go, the rest want to stay with Wario. Can you believe it?"

"I believe it. People can be selfish and greedy to the end. Ignore them and go your own way, Mona."

She smiled. "So when can I start?"

"Anytime, just give me a few hours notice before you set out."

"Okay. Thank you babe." She hugged him and Larry cautiously returned the favor. After letting go, she smiled at him and walked off towards the exit. Larry was a little surprised how good he got along with her, considering he only knew her for a couple of weeks from poker. He walked through the double doors of the room, passing Iggy and Penny on the way out.

"So the jet stream will change because of the Adonai mountains that will move to the west-"

"Yeah, and it'll bring in much needed moisture." said Iggy. "So planting there will be much better after the shift."

"So if the garden fails...I can just store some seeds just in case that happens." Penny typed something in her PDA.

"A seed vault is a pretty good idea." said Iggy. "It's too bad cattle is not made for that region. Otherwise, I wouldn't mind having some burgers. Actually, I wouldn't mind having some right now."

"Hey, do you mind if I tag along?" asked Penny.

"Nah, knock yourself out."

She smiled.

* * *

People had their wily ways in doing their things. Bowser's lack of a heart gave him the seat of evil, and his bastard little self seems to be of similar mood to him. But so did Roy. Being forced from his position like that has consequences, moving from a top cheese-head official of his majesty's idiotic empire to a traceless hacker able to see everything he ever wanted. In a way, he felt like Larry at that moment. Then again, he did get some help from him earlier, didn't he?

The rustling of a chain was heard. Something was moving across the floor to him but Roy anticipated his indolence. Without even looking, Roy backhanded his snout and the creature fell backwards onto the floor.

"Stay put, ya fucktard." Roy said. "I told ya, no movin'. Maybe you really arn't hungry after all."

Birdo looked down in sadness, regretting doing that to his master. Curiosity got the better of...it.

"I gotta do this shit first." Roy muttered to himself. "Then yer gonna get 'colonized' be yers truly. Heh."

Birdo whimpered in response as Roy cracked the firewall to the Koopa Troop's mainframe. He was looking for something, something about Bowser's hideaway. If his brothers had one, then surely Bowser had one somewhere. He searched through the directories until he found an interesting document entitled "PS-CIVILIAN_MUTINY" which showed a layout of the castle in the event the citizens learned to truth to the shift and decided to revolt. Various evacuation routes and defensive points were listed, but far below the castle was another diagram, connected by a series of long, twisty tunnels.

"The Divine Cathedral?" What the hell was that? But his PDA rang, interrupting his thoughts. Uncanny timing.

"Yeah?"

"Greetings."

"Well, if it isn't da Big Wig." said Roy. "You fell off of da face of da planet after Bowser pounded ya in. You paid a pretty big price for lettin us know."

"I simply cannot afford his debauchery at the moment." responded Ludwig. "His words are as ineffectual as his undying obsession for the damsel of the Mushroom Kingdom. I have greater plans I must adhere to."

"She's a doll, but no keeper. There's better ways of taking that trash of a kingdom."

"Not there is any more appositeness for usurping that fragile and soft despotism, but I called your person to inquire if you are indeed, supportive of a more...fair and modest rule."

Roy was silent. He knew what that really meant.

"Indubitably, you must understand that his words are treasonous to the Koopa Code of Law set down by our forefathers all those illimitable years prior. No king may displace the first born of his person for any reason save for the proof of the incompetency of his abilities or the threat and validated proof of an impending coup d'etat."

"Then he thought ya were...that first one." Roy said, forgetting the word.

"Yes, incompetent. However, both cases must be adjudicated before the Council of Magikoopa's, the protectors of the royal lineage, before a final conclusion is set forth. As his judgment was not within their presence, it is considered erroneous and by the Code, if he puts such bunkum into practice, he is considered removable by yours truly."

"So...what ya just said...you can just coup him right now?"

"I could, but that's precisely what he's expecting. He wishes to obliterate me in one foolish offensive. That will not occur, and instead I will wait for the shift to...progress further. In the meantime, I request that you acquire his shelter and use the resources within for your own plans."

Roy decided to play dumb. "And where would dis be?"

"The Divine Cathedral, located beneath the dungeons of the castle. Surely you have heard of it?"

"Yea, a while ago. But here's da thing, why do you want me to have all his goods?" It was an honest question.

Ludwig drank something on the other end. "The more of us that survive the upcoming apocalypse, the greater the chance our lineage will remain intact. There is also the fact that I have no use of that shelter or it's goods. I am quite self-sufficient and can rely on myself."

Roy thought about it. It would severely weaken Bowser, seeing how much he's stocked up there if the document was correct. However, it would have to be done at the right time and that clearly wasn't now.

"Alright, but dis has to be done right. And I'd rather see you up on da seat than Junior. I hate dat rodent."

"Excellent to hear of your support. I shall inform you when the next stage is about to occur." There was a voice on the other end. "I must go, Kylie requires me for something."

"Kylie?"

"Yes, your future queen. Farewell." And with that he hung up. So Kylie was back with Ludwig now? But then Roy suddenly remembered Morton's old "girlfriend."

"Woah woah, he set dat up?" Roy said aloud. He had no idea why, but given Luddy's complicated strategies, he really didn't want to know. He was more used to less complicated things, like...

He got up from his seat and looked at Birdo, a poor pink thing laying on the floor. "Don't matter. Time to teach ya what happens when ya disobey orders in da Koopa Troop: anal colonization!" Birdo could only whimper at Roy's massive bulge in his pants.


	13. 13

As the elevator moved upwards at blinding speeds amidst a sea of lights, Iggy Koopa pondered the significance of his stay at the Galaxy. His adventure in discovering what Bowser and Ludwig were hiding from the world not only led to him and his siblings' forced enrollment into the Galaxy, but he also learned the ultimate truth behind the disasters occurring in the world: The Great Destroyer of old has returned and he was living in the times of the apocalypse. The fact that his days were ultimately numbered depressed him a bit, and yet brought him a sense of relief; finally, he was going to be able to start out on his own and no longer would be confined to the rules of his father's regime. Yet still, he felt constricted. The Galaxy did not allow him the ability to share with others what lies just beyond the daily drudgery that most commoners were forced to work through. And even then...

"Would they even remain sane?" he muttered to himself.

"Who would?" asked Penny, looking up at him.

Iggy almost forgot she was even next to him. "The people on the ground."

She looked away. "Probably not."

"Yeah." He thought for a moment. "We're going to have to do this discreetly." The elevator halted for a moment before continuing on a horizontal course in front of them.

"I don't know," said Penny, "It seemed like few people were interested, besides the Kongs."

"The mischief makers never speak up until they do their deed." replied Iggy. "I didn't show the precise location, but some people will go out of their way to survive."

"Yeah, look at us."

Iggy laughed. "Yeah, but we have a good reason. These other guys might not."

"Who the hell would want to go all the way out there to steal anything?" asked Penny. "Their chances of survival are so small, being miles away from any town."

"I can think of Professor Kolorado offhand."

"Oh god. I take that back..."

"Yeah, that guy's a lunatic." The elevator slowed to a halt and the door's opened. As the trio stepped out, Iggy suddenly felt his wand buzz and stopped suddenly. His vision gave him a black figure behind the doors, floating in mid air.

"Something wrong?" asked Penny. Iggy had frozen still for a moment, but after some time he relaxed.

"I'm afraid you'll have to stay outside for a few." said Iggy. "She thinks I was the aggressor and now she wants a dual. I have to knock some sense into her." He walked up to the door, said a few words and it opened. As he walked inside, Penny caught a glimpse of that black figure, floating in mid air with a black and red dress with long black hair tied in two ponytails.

"Ashley?" was the only thing she could say before the doors closed on her.

* * *

Iggy's frequent living space had morphed into a pitch black battlement, with only the light of their beings illuminating the surrounding vicinity: a pocket dimension. Ashley was drawn up, her red eyes staring down at Iggy mercilessly as if playing the part of God. But Iggy seemed amused. With a smirk on his face and a knowing expression, it was as if he did not take it too seriously.

"So, you were the one that killed Red." she exclaimed.

"Why?" asked Iggy.

"Why?" To Ashley, the question seemed preposterous.

"Yeah, why did I kill Red?" asked Iggy. This made Ashley furious, and she extended her hand and unleashed a wave of death magic right at Iggy. He instantly choked and fell to his knees; it was an Instant Death spell. Iggy quickly chanted a Regeneration spell and regained his senses. With her spell counterbalanced, Iggy tried to grumble another spell as another wave of Instant Death swept over him. Stuttering under the pressure, he finally finished and could only smile to himself. He had won.

Ashley tried to mutter another dark spell, Mind Entrapment, before giant vines broke through the ground and swept her through the air. They took hold of her every limb and with his hand, Iggy successfully moved Ashley's hand away from him. Materializing a wall in behind her, he then threw her backwards as more vines poured forth from behind, effectively trapping her amidst a sea of green.

In desperation, Ashley decided to try to mutter a short yet effective spell to break her free, but Iggy saw it coming and simply had one of the tentacles take hold in her mouth.

"Well, looks like I win." Iggy declared. "And to answer your question, I did not kill Red. Why would I?"

Ashley muffled out something in response, the tentacle too far down her throat to respond. The others seemed to have their way with her as they found their way insides her clothes and started to tear them apart.

"Looks like they have minds of their own." Iggy commented. Ashley moaned as her perpetrators reached her extremities. He wouldn't admit it, but he enjoyed seeing a master of death magic getting fondled by his plants, which were mere extensions of his self at any rate. But unfortunately, a bell was suddenly heard throughout the dimension. He knew what that was and sighed.

"I was having fun too." he groaned to himself. With a wave of his glowing hand, the plants and the pocket dimension all simultaneously disappeared and Ashley dropped to the floor of Iggy's foyer, her clothes in tatters. "I guess that's what you get for messing with the Grand Master of Nature."

Ashley said nothing and by the time she was back on her feet, Iggy had opened the door with a shocked Penny on the other end. The two girls stared at each other for a long while.

"...Ashley?" was the only thing Penny could mutter at the spectacle.

Ashley eventually gathered herself together. "Think nothing of it, Penny..."

"It was a dual." said Iggy. "And she lost. Speaking of which, I need to show you the real killer of Red."

"You can do that?" asked Ashley.

"Uh-huh." With waves of his wand and some chanting, he cast Memory Restore on both of themselves, then cast Time Dilation which created a time portal between them. Within, the rock golem was seen being constructed by a Koopaling that could not be made out at first. Another Koopaling then manifested into existence, clearly Iggy. The two talked for a few.

"Okay, that's Morton I'm talking to." said Iggy. "I remember now. He was going to show me some tricks in Earth magic. He constructed this sentient rock golem that was pretty cool."

Another Koopaling walked by, this time Larry Koopa. He smiled for a bit and waved at the two before walking off in the other direction.

"I remember Larry in my dream." said Ashley, "He was the first Koopaling I saw. There were others, but it got hazy."

Sure enough, after Larry passed the scene the other Koopalings noticed Ashley on the other side of the summoning circle. Iggy and Ashley waved to each other as Morton finalized his chants. Rock materialized out of thin air; it formed vague impressions of limbs and what appeared to be a head. The body outline was very sharp and rough. It looked at it's creator below him.

From behind Ashley came Red, the little demon that was now a foot higher and still up to its old mischief. Whether by curiosity or some vague impulse, he jumped up into the air and merged himself with the rock golem.

"Red wasn't behaving himself." Ashley said, shaking her head. The golem flashed a pair of small red eyes and it began to give off a strange purplish-gray aura. Under the intentions of Red, the golem thrust its arm into the sky and the cloudy vale soon parted to make way for an interesting sight.

"Woah woah woah..." Iggy studied the whole thing for a moment. "That's the Galaxy."

"He was trying to tell me something?" Ashley said to herself as the golem brought the object closer to view, but as he did so a strange purple energy was suddenly cast over the area. The golem immediately shattered into a million pieces and a little red spirit was seen floating away. But the others were frozen still, unable to move as the vision blurred to nothingness. Iggy promptly closed the portal.

"There's two people I know that could do that kind of purple spell: Bowser and Kammy," said Iggy, "And one of them must have done it because Red showed us the Galaxy. So I saw it before I even knew about it..." he muttered to himself.

"So Red is disembodied...I will need to summon his spirit."

"What...the hell...?"

Both turned and saw Penny with a shocked look; she had clearly never experienced the power and potency of magic, ever. And judging by the tone of her voice, she seemed awfully confused.

Ashley stepped forward. "This is my world Penny..." she began, but Penny ran into her arms scared stiff. "...it's not safe." finished Ashley.

"Why do you have to risk so much?" asked Penny, still confused.

At this point Iggy decided to bail. "I'll be in...the next room..." he said quickly before casting a transparency spell and walking through several walls. He knew for a fact that the girls were close and decided to give them some time alone.

He walked through another wall to his observatory. He stopped for a moment, realizing he had not visited it yet since his arrival. It was a giant circular room featuring a large rotatable telescope in it's center. Above it was an actual observational dome, closed at that moment. On the floor was a circular map of the heavens, carved in brown marble and lined with bronze. Surrounding the device on the far walls seemed to be a mini kitchen and bed room; evidently, someone knew that Iggy liked to work for long hours at a time.

After ordering a couple of burgers and engulfing one, Iggy set the plate on the counter and took hold of his wand. Chanting a spell, he pointed the wand at the counter and two pieces of paper taped together rematerialized before him: the Doomsday Manuscript. It had been a while since he had seen it, not since he fled his room from Bowser's forces back on the rock. But with himself somewhat settled down, he could now try to find the rest of the mysteries that surrounded the document.

Picking it up, the first thing that he noticed were the two rounded edges on either side that seemed to give the shape of a larger circle. And as he touched them, something glowed a pale orange behind all the planets.

"The Destroyer." muttered Iggy. It's full shape was off the page, but its identity was unmistakable. But as he held it it aloft, a strange writing came into view, prompting Iggy to put the manuscript back down. He tried to study it, but the moment he had lay his eyes on it, he knew it was nothing like he'd ever seen before. It was totally alien. Nothing of it's kind had ever been found in any of the digs he had done.

"I have no idea." he said, softly laughing to himself. There was no way he would be able to translate any of the text. An idea eventually came to him as he stood there: was this the language of the Gods? Something that no one else was privileged to know, not even someone like Inauro who had made the manuscript itself. The language was never passed down, save among the early Gods who had-

That's when it hit him like a sack of bricks. "A document on another document..." he said aloud. "A spell on another—No!" he backed away immediately. "Nononononono...NO! That's impossible!" How could it be possible? Did Inauro's counter spell prevent it from working? Couldn't have. Then what?

"Ok Iggy." he said to himself. "Going back to the Koopa Empire was pretty crazy. But going...to the Destroyer itself is MADNESS." How could that portal work now, anyways? Did Inauro's spell prevent their use of it?

That must have been it, Iggy thought. He knew that the slaves eventually rebelled and an offshoot of the royal family had ousted the Gods and they never returned, so the scriptures say. This meant that the Doomsday Manuscript was far, far older than it appeared. It must have been a two way portal between both worlds long ago, something only the royal family was allowed to keep as was evidenced by Iggy's trip to the Empire. But that was the Gods use of it. What about him, right now? With the way Inauro had cast his spell, it seemed possible.

But going there was something unheard of. Every Koopa historian that he knew had an innate fear about the God's home world, aside from them being cruel slaves masters of their race. They never talked about it. Most had passed it off as a mere legend in any event. But Iggy knew it for what it was worth. It was the home planet of his race and his forefathers were neither kind nor giving.

"So, this is the real reason why I have this." he figured to himself. He knew Bowser was too much of an idiot to figure this out. It was probably filed away by this point, never to be seen again. This made Iggy more thankful as time went past: if he hadn't photocopied it, things would've turned out very different.

But now here he was, and things had turned out far differently than he had expected it. Should he cross into the other side? The idea weighed heavily in his mind. He was one of the most powerful magic users in the family, so he certainly had a surviving chance. But he had no idea what to expect. If anything, he could walk right into their downtown city and be captured at a moments notice. If he was lucky however, he would simply warp to a complex of ruins.

But then another question popped into his mind. "Why are you even considering this?" He then realized his intentions and sighed nervously. "Because I have to go." He did not know why, but something in him told him to go. Was it his explorer side, or was it something else? He didn't know. All he knew is that he found himself casting a purple spell called Magic Eye. A spherical yellow light appeared, the color of Iggy's aura. He then cast another spell and created a yellow portal on the floor, similar to what he did back in his old room.

He again sighed nervously. This was extremely risky. "Let's see what happens." he said as he mentally commanded the light to touch the Doomsday Manuscript. The orange section glowed brightly and there was a flash and the glowing sphere remained still. A moment later, it shifted and within it a picture of the destination could be seen. A dim sun seemed to be setting over the horizon inside dark orange clouds that flowed like a river across the sky. Small echoes of thunder were heard in the distance. But in front of the light was a large pyramidal complex of a strange shape and design, long abandoned and partially in ruin. Iggy turned the eye 360 and saw a vast desert in the opposite direction, but on the far off horizon he could make out what appeared to be lights of a city. They were still alive.

Iggy cast a few more spells. He was donned in a suit of armor with a horizontal visor and spikes on the top of his helmet: a set of armor for magic battles. It was sleek in design and primarily yellow and gray colored. Not waiting another second, he stepped up to the Manuscript and placed his hands upon it. He was surrounded by that same orange flash and was gone.

* * *

Wendy O. Koopa burst through the double doors of the throne room, clearly peeved. Not that this was unexpected as her siblings were used to such behavior, but Junior himself was not accustomed to dealing with such a personality quite yet. And as the doors suddenly opened he jumped up from his seat, startled.

"What did you do to my mall?" she shouted. Clearly Junior was having his way with things.

"Huh? What mall?" he asked, going back to his portable.

"The mall you destroyed and put a kids theme park in it's place!"

Junior thought for a moment. "Oh yeah, that building...so that was a mall? Huh."

That was too much for Wendy, who casually lit a bob-omb and chucked it at him. Junior saw the projectile just in time for him to jump out of the way before it exploded.

"You really do have a lack of depth." said Wendy. "To like, everything."

"Excuse me?" said Junior. "Did I just hear that a shopping mall was more important than a theme park with my gorgeous face all over it?" Wendy's face was beat red. "GUARDS!" shouted Junior, expecting them to escort his sister out of his throne room. However, they just looked at each other and wondered what to do. Wendy snorted. "You two can follow me." she said as the two guards, a Hammer Brother and a Koopatrol, followed her out onto a balcony.

"Like, how can you guys stand that asshat?" Wendy asked them, expecting amusing answers.

The two guards stared at each other. The Hammer Brother shrugged. "It's my job." he said.

"Plus, guarding Prince Bowser Jr. was an order from his majesty himself." said the Koopatrol.

Wendy sighed. "So, I can't convince you guys to lock that brat in his room, huh?"

"Nope!" said Junior, walking out with them. "I'm the Crown Heir now and I can do whatever I want."

As the two siblings proceeded to argue with each other, the Hammer Brother couldn't help but notice something extraordinary in the sky.

"Holy shit, a UFO!" The Bro pulled out his phone and immediately started videoing the large objects that suddenly appeared in the sky above him, somewhat obscured by cloud cover. But the Koopatrol only rolled his eyes.

"Those can't be UFO's." he muttered. "Most likely one of Bowser's space experiments. You would figure they'd at least look like actual ships, no?"

But the Hammer Bro was ignoring him at this point, too focused on the display in front of him. "Oh man, I heard about those sighting near the Barrel Volcano. They say they glowed there too."

The Bro clearly jinxed the situation as the orbs suddenly started glowing red. "Great timing. They're entering the atmosphere now." commented the Koopatrol.

"Huh?" The too siblings turned around and saw the scene for themselves. The glowing orbs passed through the clouds and were clearly nothing that the Hammer Bro was hoping for. His face quickly turned to one of dismay.

"Those arn't UFO's." he said hopelessly.

"No shit! Those are meteors!" exclaimed Wendy. "What the hell is the Troop doing? Those numskulls can't figure out a cinnamon roll from an ass!"

"Sir!" a minion ran through the doorway and saluted. "We have detected many objects entering our orbit!"

"NO SHIT!" screamed Wendy, prompting the minion to fall over. "And like, don't call me sir ever again." One meteor suddenly screeched down down from the sky, a large ball of flame that with a loud explosion hit a building not more than a few miles from their location. The impact knocked everybody off their feet as a plume of dirt and debris shot into the air.

"Shit just got real, man." said the Hammer Bro, gawking at the giant explosion.

"May I suggest running?" asked the Koopatrol, who then got back on his feet and ran back inside the castle. The Hammer Bro followed suit without a word. Wendy and Junior were left alone as they watched what appeared to be a taste of the apocalypse. Balls of flame shot out of the sky, with most appearing near the coast many miles away, but visible from their high standpoint. One hit near the main Koopa City dock in a large explosion of water that knocked many a ship from port into the air, along with docks, people and otherwise. A handful of smaller meteors hit the city proper, causing extensive damage to residential and commercial buildings. The people started to run for cover and the air was filled with sound of explosions, the commotion of people and falling meteors whistling down from the sky.

"Yeah..." began Wendy. "People are totally freaking out now. What are you going to do about this?"

But Junior was silent, locked in a trance as he witnessed something on a scale he had never imagined. And as he stood there, it became evident that one of the meteors was headed right toward them.

Wendy spotted it and noticed Junior's lack of movement. As tempting as it was, even she knew better than that. "You really are an idiot, aren't you?" she muttered to herself as she grabbed Juniors arm and dragged him back inside the castle. Moments later, the fireball streaked into the 32nd balcony of the castle's south end.

* * *

Red lights flashed and sirens blared throughout the Galaxy's control room, a large room lined with dozens of workstations seated with various monsters. "We have detected a swarm of meteorites entering the main Koopa City proper!" said one Parakoopa with a headpiece. "12 are estimated to strike!"

In the center of the room on a comfy high rise chair was the former Crown Prince, Ludwig Von Koopa. And to many's mental objections at the moment, he did not issue any commands to resolve the issue. Instead, he remained silent.

"Orders, sir?" asked the Parakoopa, growing impatient.

"There are none to give," replied Ludwig, "Because there is naught to do."

"Sir! May I suggest the photon lasers currently deployed on the surface?"

"You may suggest it," said Ludwig, "But you may not want to become responsible for that outcome. While the weapon may detonate the targets, its rain of debris will create far more damage than what was originally intended. Therefore, there is naught to do." He hummed to himself. "I sincerely hope that the new Crown Prince will have this situation under control soon." he said with a sarcastic tone.

"We have received word that the castle has been struck!" relayed a Buzzy Beetle. "A meteor has breached the 32nd floor!"

"The throne room." said Ludwig. "How terrible. Is there word that Junior survived the event?"

"Yes! Junior and Wendy are said to be safe and unharmed."

"Ah. I'm sure Wendy will be able to accommodate things...for the short-term at least."

"I will inform all related parties of the event." said the Buzzy Beetle as he sent a rely message to Bowser and the rest of the Koopalings. Ludwig scratched his chin in thought. "What is the source trajectory of the meteorites?" he asked.

A screen came up of the Mushroom World superimposed upon holographic statistics. It showed the swarm entering the upper atmosphere. "The meteors entered the skies of Boo Woods before heading in a northeasterly direction to Koopa City. Their source of origin is...from the orbit of the Great Destroyer." The orange, cloudy giant appeared on screen behind the Mushroom World. "That's funny..."

"What is it?" asked Ludwig.

"It seems the Destroyer's axis has tilted during the event. It's axial tilt was 9 degrees before the event, and my readings show that it is now 12 degrees." A motion on screen showed the Destroyer's north pole tilting slightly towards Mushroom World.

"What does this mean?" asked the Buzzy Beetle, clearly confused. Many turned towards Ludwig with similar thoughts. How could a meteor shower cause something so major as an axial tilt?

But Ludwig remained silent for a long while and nobody dared speak up. He knew what was occurring, something he outlined long ago in sequence before the disasters began to happen. If it was dancing now, then the stage was already set up, wasn't it? But as he looked at all the faces awaiting an answer, he had trouble forming the proper words for one, something so easily understood to a simple mind not tortured by the truth. In the end, all he could do was sigh and close his eyes.

But his thoughts were soon interrupted. "What the...?" said a Magikoopa. Ludwig looked at him. "It's axis is shifting again."

"To what extent?" Ludwig said quickly.

"I'm not sure. It has begun it's previous forward motion and is currently tilting at 15 degrees, but..." The screen in front shifted to the Destroyer, which was clearly moving in place now. "...there is no signs of it stopping it's current trend."

"Then the 2nd phase has begun." muttered Ludwig.

"And that means...?" said one fuzzy.

"It means the glorious days of our luxurious lifestyles have come to an end. I sincerely hope that all of you have chosen a designated shelter at this point." He chuckled. "For the book of our age is about to close."

At that, sirens went off again. "The Destroyer is now at a 33 degree axial tilt! It is now facing the Mushroom World!"

"Look!" pointed one dry bones. All looked and saw their own world began to miraculously move on its own. It's axis began to tilt, bringing it's south pole upwards towards the Destroyer. "Mushroom World's tilt is at 25 degrees! What the hell is going on...?"

"The Destroyers north pole will be facing our direction soon!" said the Magikoopa. A rumble was suddenly felt throughout the Galaxy; more lights went off and many of the indentured servants there looked more than a little frightened by that.

"What was that?" asked the fuzzy, trying to figure out the situation.

"That was the Destroyer's magnetic field." Ludwig said. "Specifically the magnetons from the north pole. We have no choice but to align with it."

"Or?"

Ludwig looked annoyed. "Or the immense pressure of maintaining our own field will be so immense that the physical structure will be completely shredded apart."

"You mean the Galaxy-" A major rumble shook the room violently. Some of the computers surged and exploded, sending their operators across the room. The lights went out and the front screen went dark. After a moment, red emergency lights flashed on, dimming everything with a dull red. A few of the computers came back to life as much of the crew scrambled back to their seats.

"Backup systems are online! Damage includes-"

"Spare me the details! Align the Galaxy's southern axis with the Destroyer immediately!" Ludwig growled.

"Yes sir!" Near the bottom of the Galaxy, blue thrusters fired up and slowly tilted the massive complex backwards. The front screen fired up again and the two dancing planets slowly moved to the bottom of view. As the giant complex leaned backwards, the rumblings continued and the Galaxy received more damage on its top end. But gradually their intensity faded to nothing more than dull rumbles in the hull as the structure rested on it's back along a horizontal axis.

"Rumblings have stopped." sighed a Goomba.

"Damage in the northern K, Y and M sectors." said a Bob-omb. "All main lights are offline. Emergency lighting in these sectors remain steady. Gravitational systems remain operational. Power has been redirected to only vital services within the Galaxy."

"Do not worry about the outer structural damage." said Ludwig. "Focus on keeping the essential systems of the interior running at full capacity."

"Sir?"

"The Galaxy will not survive much longer." said Ludwig. "Soon, the time will come when we all must depart for the inevitable. It is a much better chance, after all. Speaking of which, what of the Mushroom World?"

"No changes in the upper level atmosphere." reported a shy guy. "Earthquakes have occurred within the Mushroom Bay Trench, near Rougeport. No immediate damage reported in that area."

"This shift will affect the weather, slowly." said Ludwig. "The general denizens might notice that." He hummed. "Fortunately, the Destroyer is still far enough to not be seen in the sky yet, except at sunset within the correct conditions. But that will change as it draws closer."

He got up and walked to the exit as the operators groaned to themselves of what that realization meant. The doors whizzed open and Ludwig walked out of the room. "I wonder how she'll take it." he muttered to himself as he thought about Kylie before the doors closed behind him.

* * *

Red emergency lights cast an ominous glow down the plain hallway, one lined with large stainless steel plated doors heavily locked and sealed. Several Sumo Brothers paced back and forth, keeping the peace, whatever peace there was. The Galaxy's asylum was for all those who could not handle the truth or refused to abide by the rules. Many here were locked up after long meetings with the council, with most having not seen the light of day again. It was a true testament to the Galaxy's heart breaking rule structure. It was the main reason why most decided not to misbehave.

One Sumo Bro. at the asylum entrance looked at the visitor who stepped in and seemed amused. Was he going to try this again?

"He hasn't changed since the last time." he muttered. He opened the gate anyway.

"Hey, it doesn't stop me from trying!" said Wario, pointing at him. "I could get him back into shape if he'd forget that nonsense and snapped to it, ya know?"

"You said that last time." said the Sumo as Wario walked through the gate and strolled down the hallway. "And that goes for everyone else."

"Watch me!" shouted Wario, far down the hall. The Sumo could only shake his head after what happened the last time: two Sumo's badly injured, one with severe head injuries and all for asking a simple question.

But that didn't stop Wario, nor did most things for that matter. If he wanted it then it was his, so he thought. But as he passed by each cell through the hall and overheard the incomprehensible muttering, banging and mindless screaming, he wondered for the first time if...

"Bah!" Wario said aloud. He wouldn't allow it to happen. Sure, some people were never meant to know the truth to things. Their screams were their testament to a previous life of happiness and good sex...maybe. Good sex was hard to come by these days, that was true. That's why Mona was like a priceless gem, but like anything priceless it was very demanding.

As Wario thought about better times, he almost walked by his destination. He snapped out of it immediately and thought about his new strategies. One of these had to work. With a little more confidence, he took off his glove and scanned his thumbprint. The door hissed and levers moved about as Wario put it back on. Two major bolts slid back into the wall and 4 more vertical bolts slid backwards until the final center deadbolt slowly turned back with a mechanical sound. After the impressive show of security, the door slowly slid inwards, revealing a poorly lit room lined with white padding from head to toe, save for a small circular window near the ceiling on the other end. Wario looked down and saw that they still didn't clean up the mess from the other day: dried blood and what appeared to be some muscle. The pussies couldn't man up to it after that stunt, apparently.

Wario looked about, but saw nothing moving. "Hey bozo, you still alive?" he shouted.

Something stirred in the shadowy back corner, something wrapped in a tight white harness that struggled to get to its feet. It took a while, but eventually it used the wall and stood up. As he came into the light, it became apparent to Wario that Waluigi looked like a different man. Without his hat, his wiry hair fell in all directions but that didn't cover up his now sickly, pale face. He was clearly malnourished and looked like he was a million miles away.

"What's your definition of alive?" asked Waluigi, hardly looking at his older sibling. "I tried to live, yes. I tried that. But they want to cage you instead. Cage your mind. You see? I'm the prime example. If I can't cage my mind, they do it for me. They are afraid of something. What are they afraid of, Wario? What is it?"

"They're afraid of you." said Wario.

"Why? What's wrong with living in peace?" answered Waluigi. "Peace and comfort? They can do everything for us, yes. Don't have to worry nothing about that. We just need to survive. Yes, with that nice girl."

"You mean Luigi's gal? The gal you almost raped?"

Waluigi hissed and cringed his teeth. "All lies. Nonsense. Luigi is a fool. Why did he try to stop me?"

"Because it's his girl, you dumb ass." replied Wario. "You need to keep your cool with these things."

"I did everything right." continued Waluigi. "Daisy's to be the bride of the group, you know? Everything has to be right. I got her comfortable. We was drinking you know."

"Yeah I know this story." said Wario. "This is only the 5th time you told me."

"I was there at the right time. Luigi went to piss-"

"Then you grabbed her tits and she screamed." said Wario, rolling his eyes. "I know the deal."

"Why did she scream?" asked Waluigi. Wario face-palmed. Was it too late for his little bro?

"Because she doesn't like you, obviously." muttered Wario. "But that's not why I'm here. You heard what happened? Must of felt it."

"Yeah. This whole place was shaking not too long ago." said Waluigi. "Is it finally starting to tear apart?"

"What do you mean, 'finally'?" asked Wario. "It was never meant to!"

"Just a small hope, that's all. I can finally bust out of here...and get what I want. You're saying it's finally coming apart?"

Wario scratched his head. "I don't know how it all works, but that planet just shifted something at us, magnetics or something. Flipped the whole thing on it's side. It's fine now, but I bet the guy at the top was pretty surprised."

"Who is that again?" asked Waluigi.

"I don't know, some son of Bowser's." said Wario. "Like I give a shit. Point is brother, I may be leaving soon. Not too safe up here anymore. Besides, I have much more treasure on the surface I can play with."

"Do you have a girl to play with?" asked Waluigi.

For Wario, that hit a little too close to home after his problems with Mona. "No, do you?"

"No, I wish I did though." Waluigi said, with a sad expression. "Why doesn't she love me?" He groaned. "You know, If this was easy, they'd let us go. Just like that, brother. And we'd be happy even after everything gets destroyed."

Wario sighed. This was clearly not going to work. The end of the world apparently made Waluigi obsessed about his love, not unlike a certain Koopa King. And while he hoped that the Galaxy crumbling from the recent tremors would help brighten Waluigi's spirits and make him somewhat sane again, it was only exacerbating the situation.

"Well, that's the news." said Wario. "If you get lucky, you might bust out of this place once everyone else leaves it. Or if it gets damaged enough. Who knows." He turned to leave and walked back out through the metallic doorway.

"Hey bro," asked Waluigi, "There's no going back, is there?"

Wario thought for a moment, then shook his head. He reactivated the door and it slowly hissed back into place, leaving a thoughtful Waluigi behind in his madness. Wario walked off, slightly peeved as the door re-bolted itself. The Sumo Brother at the entrance knew better to just say nothing as the fat plumber walked out of the asylum.


	14. 14

The readings came back: 78% Nitrogen. 21% Oxygen. It was exactly the same as back on Mushroom World. Confident, Iggy let his helmet fall back and exposed himself to an air not felt for tens of thousands of years. Dark, orange clouds filled all the sky and blotted out the stars. The sun was seen over the horizon within a hazy vale; even the sun had a hard time penetrating through, leaving the surface in a dusky gloom. Purple lightnings flashed in the distance in front of him, but to his right was his real treasure.

Turning, Iggy saw the mammoth structure loom before him, a pyramid of immense size. It was much taller than even the Pyramid of Marthos and Iggy guessed that it must have been well over 300 feet high. But it's glory days were long over, as much of its outer layer had been eroded, leaving behind patches of well decorated cover stones with simple sandstones mixed around and underneath. Pillars were littered around the place, most around the entrance which Iggy walked towards.

As he approached the doorway, he noticed a pair of tall statues and forced himself to stop. Each was about 20 feet high and depicted monstrous creatures with large bulgy arms and legs with long curved claws, supported by a large well carved chest. It's head was more gruesome, with large curled horns from its temples and what appeared to be double rows of sharp teeth. Considering the statues craftsmanship, Iggy had a feeling they were realistic depictions of the God's themselves. Strangely, they had never been accurately illustrated within ancient Koopa scripture, save as a mythological element. Iggy hoped that they looked nothing like that, especially since he was only slightly taller than the statues knees. But looking back at the doorway and seeing it's immense height and width, the reality slowly sinked in: this is what they looked like.

In any event, he had to keep moving. He decided it was best to not run into any of these guys, and with that in mind Iggy walked up to the entrance of the pyramid. Aside from its large size, the door was held shut by a glowing green sphere that seemed to shimmer brighter as he approached. He only wondered for a moment before remembering the first time he used the Doomsday Manuscript. He placed his hand on the sphere and instantly his hand was outlined. A moment later, the door rumbled and parted but stopped less than half way, enough room for someone his size to get through. But if the door parted all the way, Iggy knew that one of those giant behemoths would easily be able to walk in.

Looking back, Iggy looked across the endless desert and saw lights on the horizon. He hoped that he wouldn't make too much of a ruckus, since the last thing he wanted to do was fight those things. "Yeah right..." he said to himself as he turned back around and entered the pyramid.

The hallway was dark and lined with sleek stone walls enclosing a strange bluish, foggy hue. He stepped forward and the door quickly closed behind him, shrouding him in darkness. Thinking quickly, he got out his wand and cast a light spell. The wand's gem beamed to life and cast it's glow around him. Seeing his path, he walked forward quickly, wanting to get this over with.

As he made his way into the ancient temple, he began to see words inscribed in the walls that he couldn't make out, but on second glance they looked similar to those on the Doomsday Manuscript. As he passed side passages that plunged into unknown depths, the writings increased with intensity until full hieroglyphics were seen. Like the two statues at the entrance, they depicted great monstrous beings with large curled horns and double rows of teeth. Below them in endless lines were a much smaller folk with hooked mouths carrying rocks, pulling loads and building giant structures. They resembled the Koopa Troopa back home. One glyph showed what appeared to be one of the giants with a large crown alongside a smaller one with a crown, who's head was barely above the formers knees. "Yeah..." he thought, "Those statues were definitely accurate. Wonderful." He moved with a greater sense of urgency now. They would have none of their former slave race wandering around their planet, that's for sure.

After what seemed like an hour wandering the same path, climbing steps and reading more inscriptions, Iggy finally came into a large room. It was strangely shaped; the walls and floor were curved, like a torus. But a walkway was placed down the middle, and from this Iggy walked to the center of the room which housed something interesting. A stone pedestal supported a long, triangular contraption standing vertically. Approaching closer, Iggy could make out its real design. It was a long triangular column that jutted through the floor, and its top was barely level with Iggy's neck. But the top had something else: 3 small sliding doors, with two of them open. The other was fast shut and covered in a layer of dust. Below these doors was a symbol in the shape of a rounded triangle with 3 circles in its corners. The top circle was painted red, the left one black and the right one white.

Iggy compared the symbol to the doors. If this was correct, then the red and black sections were open and the white remained closed. But there were no obvious ways of opening it, aside from prying it open with ones claws. With that already attempted, Iggy put his hand over the remaining door and tried to think of a chant or something similar that might move it. He tried several spells in sequence, but nothing worked. After he tried a spell that could open anything magically sealed and see that fail, he got very nervous.

"Ok, think of something clever." Iggy said to himself as he tried to think of a way of opening it. He imagined how it would open up under intense pressure when suddenly, the door casually slid to the side. Iggy made a face, clearly befuddled. Did he just think his problem away, or was it just a coincidence? Or was it something else?

A shining light beamed from the orifice, and out rose a brilliant and bright wand. Iggy couldn't tell what it was immediately made of, as its surface was covered by a shearing light, but the fact that it was a wand made him stop and think to himself.

It was well known throughout Koopa tradition that whoever held the Wand of the Koopas (within the royal family) would become the next King of the Koopas. Each king always had a statue made for himself holding it. The wand could not be possessed by anyone else unless the previous owner had died, and the wand gave its master powerful, almost supernatural abilities. As the Koopa Kingdom developed into a more modern society, this was attributed to special aspects of the royal family's blood: something about it made the wand as powerful as it was. It was as old as the family itself: many legends state it was carved by the God's long ago.

But that was the thing: there was only one known wand that could do this. And yet here were 3! The Wand of the Koopas had a large red gem on it's end, so Iggy guessed it was probably the red wand. If that was correct, then the black wand was unaccounted for while the white one had been sealed away for reasons unknown. But if it was anywhere near as powerful as the Wand of the Koopas...

It hit Iggy then. If he even so much as touched the wand, then he would undoubtedly have a power equal to Bowser's. He would become the most powerful Koopaling, even surpassing Ludwig. If it was anything like Bowser's wand, then Iggy would be a force to be reckoned with until the day he died. Once taking a hold of it, there was no going back. He had to make a choice.

There was a dull rumble throughout the complex at that moment, the sound of massive doors sliding back. Far off down the tunnel came the echoes of strange, gnarling voices with a sense of urgency. Iggy's time was running out. He had to decide now. Given that they had somehow guessed he was in the complex, fighting his way out at that moment may prove to be difficult especially if they were more proficient in magic than he was. Seeing as how they made the 3 wands...

"God dammit." he muttered. He reached and took the wand from the small chamber. Almost instantly, his hand sweltered and burned at the touch. Grimacing, he felt a sharp pain rip up his right arm and through his neck. Looking up, he saw his world altered, mixed in a myriad of planes and objects overlapping one another. In that moment reality was not so obvious, and Iggy struggled to ground himself into the plane of existence that he knew. Adapting to the pain that reeked through his body, he tried to focus on the physical plane and sure enough, the planes faded to the point that he could see the walkway that he had come from. But the walls of that path now reflected strange green lights: they were coming. Iggy looked about the chamber for any place to hide, and looking up he saw a plane extend itself into his reality creating a bending of light and shadow, allowing him to see an alcove that rested atop of the torus-like chamber.

Moments later, the beings literally ran into the room. They were very close to the statues set up outside, with arm and leg chokers, tight leather straps which housed all sorts of devices and huge shells with 6"-10" spikes sticking up into the air. Their double rows of teeth glistened as they roared, disturbing the long standing silence of the chamber. From the middle of their company walked a taller one, dressed in black robes with gold lining and a large black wand entwined with rubies and a large diamond for a gem. Iggy did not like the looks of that wand, not one bit.

Upon halting in front of the triangular altar, they rapidly spoke in their own language. Iggy could not understand them and wondered at what they said, before the wand seamlessly translated the words inside his own mind. Iggy mentally sighed to himself and knew that the wand was going to take some getting used to. They seemed to be debating about something.

"It couldn't have been a slave!" said another. "It must have been a descendant of that rebel. He's come seeking vengeance!"

"But the Star Spirits have not allowed travel between-"

"Yes, I know!" growled the first. "Don't remind me. Why did they have to butt into our business?!"

"Because the time of the race of Koopa is drawing to a close." said the priest in the black robes. "Most will not survive this coming pass. It would be pointless to descend."

"But that doesn't explain how he got on our planet." said the second being. "The ban works both ways."

"And I've given thought to it." replied the priest. "There are ways around a ban, even in magic. But they would not dare take advantage of it except for a single purpose. And no slave is allowed to step onto our world: only the bloodline has that right. He is here, undoubtedly. We shall scan the temple and set out to capture him."

"Why can't we just execute him?" asked one.

"Because he a son of Koopa," said the priest, "And though he and his kin have been banished from our world forever, he was royalty and you know the laws of royalty. Capture him, but do not kill him. You two, head back to the front."

At once the beings spread out amongst themselves and began to cast spells. Several ran back down the hallway they came. Iggy wondered what he could do now. He knew they were heading for the only known exit out of the place. With no other options, he was going to have to trust his new wand, and his luck.

He focused on the spell casters and saw they were casting some type of scanning spell. He moved further back into the alcove as quietly as he could until he noticed an opening in the wall. Through it was a large dark hallway that led to blackness in both directions. Hearing nothing, Iggy moved away from the hole and cast his wand about: his body slowly became transparent until he was fully invisible to the naked eye, wand included. Just in time as mere moments later, a wave of green energy swept through him and the complex. The voices spoke up again, farther away.

"There's something in the northeast quadrant." said one. "I can't tell what kind of signature it is."

"Doesn't matter." said the priest. "Spread out to the energy points and make sure he doesn't get to the center of the temple!"

"Yes!" With that came more green flashes, then the room seemed to be silent. But Iggy frowned; somehow, they had detected him despite his invisibility. If they could detect that, then how could he mask his movements? He quietly sighed to himself. Somehow, he needed to figure out a way to camouflage his own magic signature.

Iggy looked through the planes of existence, seeing if they could help him out in any way. One plane showed him energy currents that flowed throughout the entire complex, all meeting within a central core at the heart of the temple. Peering through the walls, Iggy saw the guards placed at certain points of this flow while others still headed toward him. A brilliant idea hit him then, it was that or a futile dash to the entrance.

After a few more minutes, the guards reached the last known location of the intruder, but their target wasn't there. Instead, they found another guard searching the ground for something.

"Did you see him?" asked one of them. "He's around here somewhere."

"He was here moments ago." said the guard. "He seemed to be running towards the central core."

"Then he has already learned to use the wand. We must hurry!" The 3 guards darted off towards the center, trying to pick up any signs of the intruder. But as they drew closer, it became clear to them that they had lost him. They kept running and after jumping down a few steps, they came upon a ledge within the center of the complex: a large rectangular space with a glowing sphere of energy in its center. Scattered about were various pieces of machinery of the race's past on display, specifically various works of it's previous colony on Mushroom World.

"We must meditate again." said the guard and the others held up their wands to cast another scanning spell. Their huge wands twinkled and across from them on a ledge appeared Iggy Koopa, staring intently at them. At once, he used his wand to blast a fireball at one of the guards, who fell off the edge and onto the floor below. The other two immediately fired back, but Iggy ran down the hallway behind him.

"Missed!"

"The others are coming. He has no chance now!" Sure enough, all of the guards began assembling around the central core on all the other ledges and pathways. Some began to scan the area again before Iggy suddenly reappeared one ledge away from the original two guards and fired another blast of energy before running back towards the wand room.

"Get him!" All of the guards emptied out of the room, following the tricky Koopaling through the maze of hallways. When the room became silent, the guard on the floor grunted and got up on his feet. Seeing what happened, he softly laughed to himself as his form suddenly shape-shifted into the original Iggy Koopa.

"Heh...That's more like it." he said to himself and surveyed his surroundings. Much of the machinery on display were of mining and masonic mechanisms used for the building of the god's cities. Also included were various types of large aircraft, most of which were of a metallic orange color with golden highlights. They all looked to be designed for the gods, with very large entrance ways and cabin widths. There was one with its wingspan folded upwards that was a bit smaller with a shorter doorway more suited to Iggy's height. A sign in front of it in ancient read "DANTEK – his royal vessel, recovered after the second rebellion."

The name sounded familiar. It was certainly in the Book of Kings, somewhere in the late first dynasty if Iggy remembered right. It was around that time that the planet had suffered what had been termed the apocalypse, or what Iggy guessed was a passing of the Destroyer. The populace had risen up against the giants and hunted them down across the globe, causing them to take the wand he now had and evacuate the planet before the pending pole shift. But Iggy couldn't remember where Dantek was in the order of the kings.

In any event, Iggy decided that he had distracted himself long enough and initiated the second phase of his plan. Noting that there were aircraft in the room, he looked up to see any viable exits that they may have squeezed through in the past. Seeing the outline of two horizontal windows on either side of the room gave him more confidence. It was possible he wouldn't have to blow a hole in the place.

Iggy moved to the other side of the plane, looking for an opening somewhere in the hull. Spotting the outline of a doorway, he thought about opening it and as he did so, so did the door with a swift swoosh. He couldn't but smirk to himself. He really needed to remember that.

Entering the large cabin, he saw two lines of red couches on each wall and a curvy table in the center, with a large book resting upon it. The exterior colors lived on inside, with oranges, golds and whites mixing in various patterns across the surfaces. To his right he saw a small kitchen with a strange looking device on the wall; he couldn't tell what it was. Beyond that was a door: peering in, he saw a small bedroom with a bed, a couch and some lights. "Wow." was all he decided to say at the moment.

Iggy walked up to the front of the ship and entered the cockpit. He sat in one of the two seats and looked at the controls, trying to find some kind of start up mechanism. But the controls were all stiff and unresponsive and there was no obvious "power on" button of any kind. It was a while before he noticed something he should have seen earlier: a glowing crystal situated in between both seats resting in some type of sliding drawer. Naturally, Iggy pushed the drawer inwards and at once, the ship powered to life. Lights flickered on and a large holographic overlay was superimposed upon the screen in front of him displaying too many things for him to read at once. But he did notice a large globe to his right, which he guessed was the Great Destroyer.

But then he felt a presence nearby. Taking his wand, he shifted to the plane of magic and saw that some of the gods were slowly returning to the central chamber. He had to go now. Thinking quickly, he played around with some of the controls and managed to activate the hull thrusters which made the ship slowly levitate off the ground as well as extend the wingspan to the horizontal. Using his wand again, he thought about the giant stone doors above and sure enough they slowly slid back to the sides.

"This thing is awesome—Youuch!" The ship reeled from a magic blast. A diagram showed that the ship wasn't harmed in any way...yet. But Iggy got the point. He thrust forwards on the half wheel in front of him and started to slowly fly out. More magic blasts came hurling in and rocked the ship back and forth, but no serious damage was done and the shields easily maintained their hold.

As the ship exited the room, Iggy caught glance of the last god to enter it: the high priest himself, who simply stared at him with a mixed expression as the ship flew through the opening.

"Vengeance has been taken." Iggy heard in his mind as the ship flew into the sky. It was telepathy...was it from the head priest? Iggy had no time to figure it out as the temple shrank further and further from view like a horrid dream falling back into time. In front of him lay the storm of clouds that he was about to enter. The holograph was buzzing with warnings.

Iggy looked at the display. Spacecraft were approaching him, 4 of them. Pushing on the accelerator, he blasted into the storm that encircled the planet. Clouds and lightning surrounded him and Iggy couldn't see where he was going. From the radar in his display, it appeared that the 4 fighters were taking on a half circle formation behind him to try to prevent any movement to the sides.

Iggy grumbled to himself and flew up at a steeper angle. The 4 struggled to keep up and started to fire at their target, with most shots missing due to the thick cloud cover. But that obstacle suddenly vanished as Iggy exited the atmosphere of the Destroyer and met the starry expanse of space in front of him. The fighters tried to reestablish their former positions but at that moment something happened.

Before the fighters renewed their attack on Iggy, an invisible force suddenly slammed into them. Iggy found himself being pulled downward, with the hologram showing the destroyer itself tilting in orbit, with the Mushroom World tilting in response. Iggy did a double-take on it.

"Is that even possible?" he asked himself, but his reasoning quickly returned to him. This was the great dance of the planets that he had researched before E. Gadd himself mentioned this particular phase of the pole shift. He shook his head. "This is happening way too soon." Iggy accelerated, trying to overcome the inertia with his enemies behind him now trying to make a full retreat, but were hopelessly dragged down instead. Iggy wondered what he could do before he was dragged down along with everything else. He saw many of the planet's satellites float by him along with small meteors. Steering was starting to get difficult.

Iggy looked at his front console for anything that could help him out. He saw a slider with what roughly translated as "sonic speed." Sliding it right, the ship's speed suddenly accelerated rapidly and escaped the planet's magnetic field with a large boom. That was easy. He slid it back to normal and looked up, but frowned as he saw the Mushroom World, now in front of him and tilting in place, trying to evade the adjusting magnetic field of the Destroyer. Meteors were headed towards the surface. Iggy knew that things were going to heat up now and that any other plans he had for his shelter would have to be done quickly before industry began to falter. He still felt that this was happening way too soon, especially since much of the Temple of Marthos had remained unexplored due to a lack of time. He also wondered what would happen to the Galaxy after this was over, which made him remember where he was going.

Iggy headed to the other side of Mushroom World, where the Galaxy was in orbit above the planet. When he approached the station, Iggy first realized that it was lying on its side, with its southern point facing towards the Destroyer. The northern half was heavily damaged. Evidently, the Mushroom World wasn't the only body that needed to align with the Destroyer. But Iggy knew that he should start thinking about leaving the Galaxy soon. As the station was now under the Destroyer's magnetic field, damage could only accrue over time. He only wondered how damaged his room was.

As Iggy approached the Galaxy, he realized that he had no place to put his new toy. He never did get any personalized transport for himself like Ludwig. Thinking for a moment, he pointed the wand where his apartment was and a garage add-on was manifested, wide enough for him to dock right inside of it. "That was too easy..." he muttered to himself as he pulled the ship inside of it. There had to be a catch in using this thing. Life was too simple with it, despite all the many planes of existence that he saw and had to get used to. Even then, he glanced through the wall and saw his observatory much the way he left it, except that the lights were now off, replaced by red emergency lights on the lower ceiling.

"Way too easy..." Iggy got up from his seat and walked out of the ship. He passed through the wall connecting the garage to his apartment and entered the observatory. Indeed, the observatory was almost like he had left it, minus the lighting. He did notice damage on some wall coverings near the ceiling however. He didn't know if the telescope would still work under those limitations or not.

Iggy walked up to the still glowing manuscript. Raising his wand, the manuscript slowly dematerialized and flowed into his new wand. After dispelling his now useless teleportation marker on the floor, he stood silent for many moments. What he had just done was only now being absorbed, and knew that he had performed a major act in history. History that may never be written, a history that may never be known...at least until the world changes. Iggy knew that with a wand as powerful as the Koopa King's it was useless to try to hide it, but adapting to the new found powers was another story. His social standing would rise dramatically and he wondered how that would pan out amongst his siblings.

Then he heard something. No, it was more than one voice. He raised his wand and tried to see who they were, but they seemed to come from every direction.

_I'm not that easy, you know... _

"What?" Iggy was clueless. But the voice sounded feminine-

_Our usual constitutional is anything but easy, my dear. _Another voice, male.

_Should be a good set today. I'm going to need this. I just feel it._

_Why the hell would you buy that?That's like, totally worthless._

_Two rounds up! Hell yeah, man!_

_Mmm..._

_She WILL be mine. I've waited too long for this._

_How many more games will they play before they realize what's going on?_

The voices were too numerous now, many happening simultaneously. Iggy was confused as hell. Were these thoughts? If these were thought forms...

He shifted his planar perception to one typically found in his brain examination labs: brain wave analysis. What he saw disturbed him: an endlessly intricate network of electric signals firing back and forth across space. If those were the essence of thoughts, then Iggy was truly impressed and a bit frightened. He could now see and read thought forms.

"I gotta slow down..." he said aloud. This was going a little too fast for him and he was certain that he hadn't nearly seen everything that the wand was capable of. Just knowing that he could read people's minds was enough for him at the moment, not to mention the journey he undertook. It had really been a long day.

Iggy walked through a wall and passed through his laboratory, only pausing for a moment to inspect any potential damage. Not seeing anything significant, he walked through another wall and passed into his main living quarters. It was dark here as well, with red lights casting a glow across everything below. But Iggy could see that his kitchen was a bit messy, with dirty plates in the sink and an empty tub of ice cream sitting on the counter alongside open bottles of liquor. The girls definitely had their way with things, Iggy thought. One of the bottles he immediately recognized, for it was one of his own creations: The Mad Scientist, coconut cinnamon rum. He was a little surprised that someone actually drank it, since most people thought it was disgusting. He saw that it was half empty. He smirked, remembering when he took Ludwig's Aria Carant. That was a long day too. "Must I finish this too?" Iggy mused to himself.

He heard some shuffling not far from him. Iggy looked across and saw that his couch was folded out and occupied by the two who had messed up his kitchen. Ashley was sound asleep on the left, her hair unbraided and flowing down across the sheets and onto the floor. Penny had shifted in her sleep on the right and was now facing the other way.

Iggy inhaled and realized his glowing wand was still out. He put it away and hoped the light didn't wake them up. The voices also died down a little and Iggy hoped they would shut up so he could pass out. But if that wouldn't work...

He snatched the Mad Scientist and slowly snuck across the room, making very little noise. It appeared the girls were still sleeping and he had got off easy. The giant glass doors quietly rolled back and Iggy walked up the carpeted steps to his bedroom before the doors closed.

There was silence for a long time. He stared at the stars up above him. He chugged on his bottle and heard the voices get quieter, but he was hardly paying any attention to them now. The real question was "Now what?" His wand would make him stick out in the family hierarchy and he wasn't so sure that this was a good time for it. Iggy had a feeling that since the world was going down, so would Ludwig's long time plan. The voices he had been hearing had included some of Ludwig's thoughts and Iggy was sure of it. Not that he thought it was morally right to read other peoples minds. But he didn't want to bud into that business. It's not like he had to show off his new wand anyway. Hell, most if not all didn't even know it existed!

He chugged again. The bottle was getting empty. He put it down and slipped out of his shell, very tired after his crazy adventure. Slipping inside his covers, he wondered about what that triad in the temple meant, and what made those wands so special together before he fell asleep.

Iggy opened his eyes, but quickly realized he wasn't in his apartment. He was looking out a narrow stone window sill with the setting sun beaming through. "One day, you might retrieve it." said a voice. The sound of rockets came through and he thought he could see objects crossing the sun and reaching into the heavens before all faded to black.

* * *

He woke up again, but again was not in his apartment. The room had an ancient feel, with golden furniture and colorful hieroglyphics carved in all the wall and pillars. He looked down at his sheets and also realized his legs were shorter. He was a different Koopaling; a dresser nearby included a mirror that gave back his reflection which included a pale yellow mohawk. He was a child.

His door suddenly opened and in appeared a skinny, aged Koopa with green hair. "You heard the summons?" he said. "Do not worry. In time you will remember everything again. Do not lose yourself in the dark ages and remain true to yourself. Go back to sleep son, you will wake up in a better place." The door closed, and the young Koopa fell back onto his bed and as he closed his eyes, he couldn't help but feel a tinge of sadness.

Again he woke up, this time by explosions. He was in a cold muddy ditch, next to a murky pool of water. His legs and arms were much longer now, and guessed he was older. Fireballs and cries filled the air in an otherwise starry night. He tried to get up but felt pain all over his body and fell over on his stomach. Struggling, he crawled his way to the edge of the ditch and saw a battle ensuring: tank-like vehicles firing magic blasts at armored soldiers. The Earth rumbled in protest and none of the combatants seemed to notice. He had no idea what was going on, or so he thought.

"When is this going to end?" he heard himself say. Not a moment later, and the stars above suddenly wheeled across the sky. Everyone then stared up at the spectacle and many looked hopeless. Some cast themselves on the ground in seeming defeat. He suddenly felt disappointed. Their heritage was lost because of their own degraded countrymen.

The Earth rumbled again, and a noise came over the horizon and quickly grew. He looked to the left and saw a gigantic wave headed towards him, engulfing everything. He grew afraid. "Go back to sleep..." he told himself as the wave approached him. But before it hit him, he suddenly heard a feminine voice out of the darkness.

"_No, wake up."_

Iggy woke up, covered in animal skins and fur blankets. He felt very cold, and saw that he was now in a makeshift tent. A small fire burned in the corner and the leftovers of the latest catch were seen in a pile, surrounded by snow. He looked down and saw that he was a child again. What on Earth was going on? Was he really dreaming?

A large muscular Koopa pulled back the tent flap and quickly closed it, trying not to let any snow get inside. He wore simple leather armor and appeared very rough around the edges.

"You were dreaming of the gods again, wern't you?" he asked. All Iggy could do was nod his head in affirmation. The large Koopa sighed.

"It is not your fault. We cannot control what happens when we dream. But to speak of the accursed who enslaved us is still punishable by death. Never forget Tivrim, we rose up against them, against their bitter tyranny and slew them down for their misdeeds against us. The great flood wipe out the rest of their once great culture. And all their survivors fled before us, and we finally became a free people. Some say we are still hunting them. But never talk about what happens in your dreams son. Especially if they are of the gods. It is best to put the past behind us." He stopped for a moment. "Try to get some sleep. We have a long march tomorrow." With that, he stepped out and Iggy fell back onto his bed. It was almost like lucid dreaming. But he felt that this wasn't quite what was happening. So then what? Something about past lives floated through his mind before he fell asleep yet again.

"_You arn't dreaming. This is real..."_

Iggy woke up again, hoping to see his familiar apartment. But alas it was not so. He was in a regal-style castle and the sun was blazing through the windows: it was the late medieval stage in Koopa history. Iggy looked at himself again but was totally shocked at what he saw: not only from the Koopa girl that lay on his naked chest, but from how big his breasts were!

"Wait, I'm female?" he said aloud, but the voice was feminine. What the fuck, was that even possible? The girl moaned and opened her eyes, her head between Iggy's large tits.

"Were you talking in your sleep again?" she asked sleepily.

Somehow Iggy kept calm, but his thoughts were racing a million miles an hour. "I-I think so..." he said, "...I had a horrible dream. I remember I was stranded-Ahh!"

The girl payed no attention and was too busy sucking Iggy's nipple. He moaned and ran his fingers through her hair. She smiled back at him. "It's okay, it's over now." She snuggled back into Iggy's tits. "We'll do the rest in the morning. I'm sleepy..." She closed her eyes and lay still.

As trippy as this was, Iggy wished to finally wake up. He just wanted to see his own reality again, though he knew for certain what was going on. He closed his eyes and before blackness over took him...

"_Wake up..."_

What was that voice?

"_Why won't you wake up?" _

With a groan, Iggy reluctantly opened his eyes. He saw his bureau against the wall and breathed a sigh of relief. Why he had gone through his past lives, he wasn't quite sure. Dreams were strange like that...or maybe the wand was trying to show him something? Iggy didn't want to think about it. He just wanted a good nights sleep.

He reached for the Mad Scientist sitting on his nightstand. There was still a little left, enough for him to forget his dreams for a while. In a way, it was a little sad. He'd rather use it for other things. Iggy chugged down the rest of the booze before putting it back on the nightstand.

"Finally..."

His eyebrows furrowed. Someone was laying next to him. He smelled the stench of alcohol. He already knew who it was, but he laid still.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"What is going on..." she said, turning again. "I told you to wake up like, ten times."

"I woke up in a million places..." he laughed. "Just not here."

"Why not...here?"

Iggy sighed, remembering the wand. He was almost certain that the wand had done it.

"Cause I had to be asleep to visit those million places."

"Iggy..."

He finally turned over and looked at Penny, who looked flushed and half asleep.

"Iggy, I shook you a million times too. It was...weird."

"It was magic...probably." said Iggy.

"Magic..." she said mockingly.

Iggy turned back over again. "Magic is just a technology not understood by science."

Penny frowned. "So magic makes you sleep like a rock?"

"It can, with the right spells." he admitted. "Though..."

"Hmm?"

"Whatever it did to me...it showed me things I've never seen before."

Penny looked at the bottle. "Oh." She moaned to herself. "Hey, what's with all the red lights and weird noises?"

Iggy was silent for a moment. "I don't know. Maybe the Galaxy got hit by a meteor or something." She was definitely drunk.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"I was...a little scared."

Iggy looked back at her and smiled. "We'll be fine for now. You should probably get some sleep."

"Okay." She scooted over and cuddled Iggy from behind as the latter immediately tensed up. "Goodnight Iggy."

"N-night." Iggy managed to stammer, unused to such affection. He breathed and decided to settle with it before managing to close his eyes. His fears were now confirmed. There were times when he wished he never had his father's gene, yet even then...


	15. 15

After benching his last 1200 lb set, Larry Koopa sat up and wiped the sweat from his brow with a towel. He didn't know what it was, but something had told him to shape up recently. Something gnawed at him, a growing feeling of discomfort that he couldn't explain. It wasn't the Galaxy's latest battle with the Destroyer or the power being knocked out, which was restored that morning. It could be the pole shift, or it could be an event that didn't happen yet. Whatever it was, he felt like facing it head on.

Larry walked over to his computer setup. He moved his mouse to dispel his screen saver, which had his logo emblazoned over every screen: his cyan face over a black backdrop. He checked his mail and sure enough, he had 8 video messages from various people. He decided to let his transcription program run through the calls on 3 of his computer screens and transcribe anything important to him.

He then double clicked an icon on his desktop, which was a video conference interface. He pressed start and his remaining 6 screens went black for a moment. Various faces then appeared in a number of locations. They were all there today.

"Hey guys," Larry began, "I guess you heard about the ship rocking back and forth up here. We gotta get rolling on this and make sure we're ready to go as soon as possible. There's already a lot of people up here wanting to leave already. I guess I don't blame them. But that means we must move ahead of schedule. I'll go around with the same order from the last call, starting with Kooper."

A screen on the right showed Kooper somewhere within the walls of Genlic, talking with several people. It was a moment before he realized he was live. "Oh, hey Larry! The latest batch from lower Birabuto just came in, about 4,000 or so. It looks like a lot of kingdoms are sending out their folk early. I heard something happened up there on the Galaxy."

"Yeah, we had a toss up with the Destroyer." said Larry. "They're getting nervous now. How's the food supply?"

"Oh, we're near maximum now. It shouldn't be any problem feeding these guys. It's just finding a place for them all."

"If they have to, they can sleep in the halls." said Larry. "They're pretty big, anyway." He paused. "Well, it looks like I'll be down there earlier than planned. I have a lot of my stuff packed already. Hell, there's no real reason to stay up here anymore."

"I hear you. It was all smoke and mirrors to begin with. Well, let me know when you actually come down here. Have to plan the welcoming party and all that!"

"Heh, alright. Oh, did you ever get the fortress defenses working?" asked Larry.

"Well, you know that Ludwig installed some new systems...I think I told you already."

"Yeah. I was hoping it was just preliminary, because I know the fortress has natural defenses. But Ludwig never got them to work."

"Nope, and neither can we. There are several rooms here that won't open, and one of them I'm sure is related to defense."

Larry sighed. "I guess we'll make due then." He looked at his other screens. "Is there anything new to report?"

Many shook their heads. "Everything's mostly done and ready to go." said one toad.

"Alright. Have any of you heard from Mona?"

Most shook their heads. Larry rubbed his eyes. He hadn't heard back from her since E. Gadd's presentation. He still decided to hold out some space for her, but he still wondered what was going on.

At that moment, he heard a noise come from behind him: a fast swoosh. He had gotten a letter.

"Hold on guys." he said, and put them on pause. If someone sent a letter, it was usually important, considering that most messages could be relayed via PDA or email. He walked to his mailbox situated within a grove in a wall and pulled out a black envelope. It was addressed to himself in red ink, and the back had the red seal of Bowser.

Larry immediately grew nervous. It was not routine for Bowser to send letters to his first children, especially after his favored son was born. Hell, Bowser hardly ever talked to his first 7 about anything serious, except for Ludwig. It meant that his dad was up to something.

Larry carefully opened the envelope with his claw and pulled out a similarly colored letter. Unfolding it he found only a short sentence written in red:

"The Koopa King requests your presence immediately. K99-999."

It was not signed. However, Bowser was referred to in the 3rd person, and it made Larry wonder what was really going on.

He sighed, and walked back over to his computer console. "I'll have to call you guys back." he said before ending the call.

* * *

With a ding, the elevator doors opened to a wide, carpeted hallway. Many pictures of Bowser's mug hung on the walls as well as on the pillars: a typical example of Bowser's extravagance.

Larry walked forward, not expecting anything good from the visit. He definitely had a plan for him, being the schemer that he was. But as he walked, he noticed chandeliers hanging above him that sprouted different colored flames. He stopped for a moment, suddenly remembering the night when he was teleported into a secret room back inside the castle alongside Bowser and Peach. It was a truth that he long knew to be evident, but that was the moment when that truth was actually incorporated into his life. It all changed after that, a weak and cowardly Koopaling was forced to grow into something that he did not quite know yet himself. And here he was again, just like it was back then when his life completely changed. Was it going to change again?

Larry started walking again. He felt like he was walking to his doom, but just like the pole shift, he knew he needed to face it head on. Eventually, the double doors at the end drew closer until they were in front of him. With an effort, he pushed them open.

Inside, a wall of windows showed the Mushroom World in full view. Around the windows, hanging from the ceiling were various TV's showing many scenes within the Koopa Kingdom, mostly riots. But in the center of it all was a giant turtle king looking down at the planet in thought: King Bowser Koopa. He did not turn at the sound of the doors, lost in whatever he was pondering.

Larry stood still for a moment, wondering what his dad would do. But several moments passed and nothing occurred. Instead, Larry glanced at some of the broadcasts and saw that many of Junior's troops, embalmed with his emblem were trying to use brute force to stop the riots. It seemed that their numbers were steadily growing as the meteor strike had made the situation worse. The media questioned the use of Martial Law.

"I'm torn." Bowser said, not moving. "Torn with what I want and what I should do. I can only choose one. Why can't I have both?!" He growled and sighed.

Larry remained silent.

"Junior is fine, he'll do well. He doesn't need my help anymore. None of you need my help anymore. Since you all know who the next king will be, that won't be an issue."

Larry was never a fan of family conflicts, despite the fact that his family's history was littered with them. Frankly, the empty politics had tired him out long ago. Nevertheless, he knew he had to play the game at least a little while longer.

"Well, Junior is one of my better friends so I don't have any problem with it." Larry said.

Bowser growled and turned around. "Why do you think I only asked you here, and none of your useless brothers? Junior will need your help. Keeping those peons in line will be a pain and I'm sure you know that already with your new fortress."

"Yeah, but at least they don't hate their lives."

Bowser laughed. "You see? You have what Junior needs, servants who will bow to him at a moments notice! He's only learning that now, but I think he'll be hard pressed once things get out of control. He needs someone who has a little more...experience."

"So, you're saying you're not going to be around, and you want me to help him become the next king?" asked Larry, driving the point.

"Yes, because then I wouldn't have to...worry about anything."

Larry smirked. "Pretty nice and all, though I think Ludwig wont take too kindly to that."

Bowser growled. "Of course he won't! He's too arrogant for his own self worth so naturally he'll be angry. He would rather watch my kingdom burn into ashes just to live his vengeance than try to save it. That is why he cannot rule! He _must not rule_." Bowser walked back to the window, anger simmering. "I need someone who can save whatever remains. Our lineage must survive and I will not see it destroyed by some pompous idiot. Out of all of my kids, at least someone has taken it upon himself to try to survive."

Larry sighed nervously. He was not someone who liked to take sides. In truth, he didn't mind Ludwig or Junior, but for the first time he wondered which would have been a better ruler. But that made him realize something.

"Your speaking like your going to die soon." Larry remarked. "Why is that?"

In turn, Bowser himself sighed nervously and turned back toward the window. He did not respond.

"I don't think your people will give up on you that easily." continued Larry. "Despite all the coverups and corruption that has gone on, we're still the only family left with these genetics. They cannot let go of that."

"It's not that." said Bowser. "I have a choice, but both choices do not look good." He shook head in grief. "In the end, I suppose I should go for what I really want. Futile? Maybe, but I won't regret it. Junior has wanted to become king for many years, and I will give him that. Ludwig has been expecting a battle with me for many years...and I will give him that. I will get what I want, and so everyone gets what they wanted." He smiled devilishly. "That's how the wheel of fate turns, my son. You shall help Junior and make sure Ludwig doesn't overthrow his rulership."

Larry thought for a moment. "Alright."

"Good! Then I'll give you something that might help you." He snapped his finger and to the right came the shuffling of feet. Through a curtained doorway came someone Larry hadn't seen in quite a while: Kamek. He carried a long black box with no inscriptions. Larry wondered what Bowser had in mind.

"I found this in Genlic long ago." said Bowser. "It wouldn't work when I tried to use it, so I shelved it."

"It is a high end wand." said Kamek. "It seems to be activated only by something specific."

"Yes, we went over this and we couldn't figure it out. I don't know how to activate it, but maybe you'll have a clue." said Bowser.

Kamek opened the box. Larry walked over and looked inside. Within a groove lie a long pitch black wand, shiny as if carved from glass but with no other decoration. It was rounded at the end but contained no gem, which was unlike any other wand Larry had seen.

"Definitely not your standard..." Larry said to himself as he reached inside and picked up the wand. But as soon as he did, he felt a tenseness run up his arm and up his neck. The wand began to radiate a rainbow of colors from within the blackness. After a few moments, the blackness changed to a bright light that filled the room. He stepped back and tried to make sense out of it, but instead he saw his vision go blurry.

"This did not happen the first time, did it?" asked Kamek.

"No..." Bowser said, "...But I remember something like this a long time ago. It was...like when I first touched the Wand of the Koopas! Kamek, that wand better not be as powerful as mine!"

"Of course not, your majesty." replied Kamek. "The Wand of the Koopas is the most powerful wand of the Koopa Kingdom."

"Looks like you lucked out Larry! I wont have to be taking that wand back! Guahahaha!"

The whiteness dimmed until the wand was pitch black again, but the waves of colors remained within. Larry's vision returned, but it seemed more "alive" than it did before, more fluid. It was a high end wand alright, but he was not as experienced in magic like his other siblings and didn't know what it meant at first.

"What? Now you want to take Genlic for yourself?" Larry mocked. He had to keep his game up.

"Haha! I don't need it. I've already made my choice. The quarrels of the Kingdom I leave to you and Junior. I'm sure you can take care of your other brothers too, since that wand is far more powerful than anything they have." He started towards the curtained door. "The Koopa Kingdom will survive in some way, after all this is over. It is our duty to not let civil war tear it apart. I hope you learn to use that wand quickly, Larry. The people made need it."

"I will. Thank you." said Larry. Bowser walked through the door, leaving Larry and Kamek behind. There was a moment of silence.

"That wand is more powerful than it appears." Kamek said suddenly. "Legend states that it could only be held by the members of the family. That was why I was quite puzzled when Bowser couldn't activate it..."

"But the Wand of Koopa can only be used by the family too, right?" asked Larry.

"Yes, that is true." said Kamek. "And you know, that reminds me of the time when Bowser left Ludwig his wand when he fell ill years ago. When Ludwig picked up the wand, it would not activate either." Kamek scratched his chin. "I will have to do more research on this. In the meantime, I would try to learn all of your wand's abilities as soon as you can. The Koopa Kingdom falls into more turmoil by the day." Kamek closed the box and bowed.

Larry nodded. "I'll see what I can do."

Larry walked through the double doors where he had first entered and heard them shut behind him. Larry stood still for several moments and closed his eyes. The wand was far more powerful than anything he had ever gotten, and for once he wished to understand how it worked. He felt like he was on a strange binge, not wholly forgetful but full of everything and always in the fluidity of the moment. He wondered what his other siblings would think once they saw it. It was then that a yellow cloud formed in his mind's eye. Within it's tumultuous storm, he saw Bowser himself with his large silvery wand, admiring himself before a mirror in a bedroom. But then the vision suddenly shifted and he saw someone else: Iggy Koopa with a very bright wand, who was by coincidence also looking into a mirror within a bathroom of some kind.

Larry opened his eyes. He didn't know what to make of it. Was he seeing other wands of his own caliber? If that was the case, then Larry's new wand was as powerful as the Wand of Koopa, but that couldn't have been right. It was said that no other could match it. But what about Iggy's wand? Larry had not seen it before and wondered if his brother was keeping quiet about something.

At that moment, Larry thought he felt his PDA vibrate. He pulled it out but saw that it was still and that he had no messages. He sighed, thinking his mind was playing tricks on him. But not a moment later, the PDA actually did vibrate. It was a call from Ludwig.

"Greetings," said Ludwig, "You are cordially invited to a private party hosted by yours truly, for the glamorous and voluptuous misses that also care to attend. Drinks and other consumables are provided upon order as is the attention of the muliebral sex. Do you refuse?"

* * *

It was a very large room, filled with jungle plants and palm trees. Sand made up the majority of the walkways, which were cluttered with many goers. Ludwig had evidently opted for the jungle theme to make things a bit more exotic. A hard jungle beat was playing on the turn tables, provided by DJ 9-volt and a Tiny Kong trying to have things her way. The two seemed to be arguing about something, but no one cared. The invited were too busy indulging in themselves and each other.

Larry walked past the debauchery that had become the hidden staple of the Galaxy. There were quite a few Yoshi's which he found to be odd, considering his father was big enemies with them. That alone told Larry that this party wasn't just for Ludwig's "pompousness." He was always up to something.

Larry walked past a swimming pool and stopped next to a crowd as he saw a Koopa suddenly jump off a plank 100 feet in the air. Performing several tricks and spins as he fell, Lemmy crashed into the waves with a thunderous applause. Considering that Lemmy was almost never invited to these types of parties...

"What are you planning, bro?" Larry said to himself as he walked away from the spectacle. After hearing Bowser's words and seeing the riots happening back in the kingdom, such a party flew in the face of sanity and morality. It didn't sit well with Larry, who was intent on living through whatever might happen. Plus, his new wand was giving him a sense of urgency.

Following his intuition, Larry walked to the back of the extravaganza and found what he was looking for. In a large hot tub was the Big Wig himself, pompously lounging himself and drinking some wine next to his sweetheart, Kylie. She noticed him right away.

"Hey look, the cute one." she cooed. "I was wondering when I'd be over this hulk."

"Hey Kylie." said Larry.

"Ah Larry, good of you to stop by." said Ludwig, sipping his wine. "We have some attended business to discuss."

"Oh, is this important?" asked Kylie, frowning.

"Unfortunately."

"Well, you could've told me earlier." she said, standing up. "Looks like I'll have to marry someone else."

"As far as I am aware, Peach is available." Ludwig joked.

"In your dreams." She stepped out. "But I'll think of something for...later on, you know."

"Please do. It's been an awfully long time since the last consummation."

Kylie smiled wryly. "I'll see you." She turned and walked towards the pool, leaving Larry alone with his older brother.

"Come, join me." said Ludwig. "There's much to discuss. Would you like anything?"

Larry scrambled into the hot tub. "I guess I ought to. Don't know when I'll be able to have fancy liquor again."

"Speaking of which, my Renault inventory is exceeding maximum capacity. Perhaps you would be willing?"

Larry laughed. "I have everything but a distillery. I'll take whatever you got, since I still have to build one of those."

"Not an issue." said Ludwig. "As always, the Lumas are ready to help with your commitments."

"There's an idea." wondered Larry, forgetting all about them.

"Surely, it is the only way to create an empire." mused Ludwig, finishing his wine. "The current fiscal forecast and insecure economic labor base leaves a risk too great to contemplate. Besides, the inevitable war will begin shortly. The option will dry up."

Larry frowned. "You think Junior is that big an issue?"

Ludwig smirked. "He himself is not so much of an issue as is the behemoth that stands behind him, playing his strings from behind the veil. A rodent is only as useful as strings will allow, after all. His seething arrogance will be his downfall."

_Arrogance_, thought Larry. How ironic.

A waitress stopped by and gave them two short glasses of Renaults before proceeding onward. The two sat in silence for a while, enjoying the bliss and the joyous atmosphere that the others created. Eventually, Ludwig made a sigh of contentment. "This shall be my last party as the true crown heir of the empire. It really is a shame."

Larry nodded. "Yeah, it's time to ditch this place. Gotta get ahead of the small movers. Are we going with the two-tail strategy we had a while back?"

"Yes, that has not changed." Ludwig responded. "Your security card now has the proper permissions. I will initiate my plan upon departure and I will leave the core of the Galaxy to you. Do what you will with it."

"I'm still surprised you're actually giving it to me." said Larry. "Are you sure you don't need it?"

"You will need it more than I," said Ludwig, "Especially as I have already constructed a much better duplicate."

"But it contains the records of everything that's occurred to this point." said Larry. "I thought-"

"I have already made duplicate copies, no need to worry. Your core has a much larger survivability rate than mine does currently, considering the impenetrability of Genlic."

Larry suddenly realized something. "Hold up. You said you made another copy. Why would you need another?"

Ludwig chuckled. "I suppose there was no avoiding it." He put his glass down and grabbed his phone from the edge of the hot tub. "At least one of my siblings should know what I've been working on." He flipped it open and pressed a few digits. Above, a large hologram appeared and Larry couldn't make out what it was at first. He guessed it had to be some sort of castle, but no stone was laid in its construction, and in place were various metallic plating and reinforcements. The whole thing vaguely looked like some type of spaceship, but it was not so obvious to the naked eye.

"Is this your pet project?" asked Larry.

"My shelter, Ludwig Castle. It is nearly complete, only requiring the last finishing touches before it is fully operational. This project has been ongoing for the past 5 years and is one of my biggest, most carefully guarded secrets."

"That thing can fly?" asked Larry.

"Of course." Blue thrusters were seen igniting below the castle. "The new core is able to reach significant altitudes, enough to travel where it may be required. In a way, the project incorporates many elements of the Galaxy, although less luxurious and more focused on survivability."

"Huh..."

"I only show you because someone must know...in case the unthinkable occurs." The hologram disappeared and Ludwig placed his phone back next to him. "This secret cannot be made known to anyone else until the ordained time."

"What secret?" came a voice. Both Koopalings looked up and saw Lemmy standing in front of them with a curious expression.

"Ah, the future Crown Prince." said Ludwig. "We were just deliberating the mechanisms of my latest and most significant project."

"More like Clown Prince." frowned Lemmy, not wanting to have anything to do with royalty. "But wait, let me guess. You were talking about...your shelter?"

Ludwig grunted. "Looks like Larry may no longer be the emperor of eavesdropping." But Larry shook his head. That was impossible.

"Does it fly?" asked Lemmy.

Ludwig simply rubbed his eyes, which made Lemmy laugh in response. "Come on Ludwig, that's an easy one."

"Then you already know enough it seems." muttered an annoyed Ludwig.

"Maybe, but if yours is close to mine, then we might want to collab, you know?"

"Oh yeah, you missed E. Gadd's survival meeting." interrupted Larry. "I was wondering where you were."

"Due to the secrecy of my project, I was forced not to attend." said Ludwig, sipping his Renault. "Otherwise, word would reach you know who. I trust Lemmy would not-"

"Bowser hates my guts dude." said Lemmy. "He hardly talks to me anymore. I doubt he'll even ask, cause I don't plan on getting caught up in whatever game you're about to play with him."

Ludwig smirked. "If what I believe occurs, I will not have to...not directly, at least. But in any case, please fill me on what's occurred. I'm certain other individuals made their own announcements."

"Well let's see," said Larry. "I announced Genlic to the table-"

"I would be more cautious." interrupted Ludwig. "Genlic is steeped in legends beyond imaginative reckoning. It is equipped with innumerable weapons and spells, even spirits. But the lasting impression is its impenetrability and that legend is known throughout many cultures. That alone will create a large following and you should be prepared in case any...problems should arise."

"So, you're saying I should'nt play all my cards at once?" asked Larry.

Ludwig shrugged. "You could say that."

"I didn't, but mine's an icicle. No one cares about it." said Lemmy.

"I will correctly guess that your shelter is located within the northern latitudes," said Ludwig, "Which explains the lack of interest."

"Hey, how did you know?" asked Lemmy.

"Please Lemmy, that was quite an easy guess."

"Well anyways," continued Larry, "Iggy announced his survival site as well."

"Did he?" Ludwig perked up, far more interested. "Did he disclose his location?"

"We don't know where it is." said Lemmy. "He just showed us a huge dig site in the middle of a desert somewhere."

"He's working with...who is it...Oh! Penny Crygor." Larry added.

Ludwig softly chucked to himself. "It seems as though genetics will work against his wishes. How unfortunate."

"Tell me about it." muttered Larry.

"Wait, what?" said Lemmy, confused.

"You were not informed of Ignatius's map of our family's genetic code?" asked Ludwig.

Lemmy simply shook his head.

"Quite an interesting study. Supposedly, there is a gene present within the family line that creates an unusual attraction of females of other species, notably human. He theorized that the gene was introduced sometime in the past, perhaps during the bronze kings when the legend of the white skin was present. In any event, the gene completely modifies the typical attraction of the opposite sex and replaces it with a mostly human attraction. Fortunately, the gene itself is relatively rare and does not frequently occur within the line. The most famous carrier is of course Bowser. Why else would he endlessly lust after that damsel, besides the greater material benefit one could reap from that relationship?"

"I guess that makes sense..."

"This is what I was referring to originally." said Ludwig. "As aside from Bowser, the other notable carriers of the gene are Ignatius and Lawrence. As this mapping was conducted before the birth of Junior it is unknown if he is a carrier, but considering the circumstances..."

"I never really cared about humans anyway." shrugged Lemmy. "I always wondered what dad saw in her."

"I am thankful not to inherit that deformity, otherwise that would've been a tragedy indeed." said Ludwig.

"Thanks." muttered Larry.

"My apologizes. In return, Peach will be available this evening for our disposal if your person is interested."

"Nah." said Larry. "For some reason, I don't like the idea of fucking a hole that my dad's been in."

Lemmy shuddered. "Ick, I was never a fan of that stuff. I'll skip off then..." He turned and walked back towards the pool.

Ludwig snorted. "Prudent as always. He will likely never have another chance."

"Who cares." Larry said, sipping his Renault. "His choice. If he wanted, he'd have 100 damsels surrounding him by now."

"I only require one." remarked Ludwig. "Only a displeased king requires that amount."

"But how many do you want?" came the voice of Kylie, who walked up to him. "Cause you have fun with plenty of them."

Ludwig laughed. "Now Kylie, you know my persona well. I don't seriously dabble in that pettiness." Ludwig got up. "Only for the festivities."

"Yeah, sure. I almost fucked one of your brothers the last time." She eyed Larry. "Why? Because you set an example."

"Not my intention." grinned Ludwig. "They became...preoccupied by my predisposition, which is hardly my fault. Are you seriously suggesting-"

"No..." sighed Kylie. "But I'm going to start slapping these ho's pretty soon."

"Please do. Not only will they love it, but you'll remind me what's really important."

"Not them?" she suggested. Larry burst out laughing. "I think I'll get going." he said, getting up. "I have to get back to my pad and do a few things."

"Of course. Thank you for attending." said Ludwig. "And I do very much wish you luck in your future endeavors."

"Yeah, you too." The couple made their way to an elevator on the far right wall, leaving Larry in thought. He decided not to reveal his new wand, out of fear it might have back-lashed against Ludwig for some reason. He was a trusted confidante and his upcoming responsibilities could not be replaced by anyone else. Despite the strange powers it gave him, he needed to keep marching forward. With that in mind, Larry walked out of the party and to his living quarters to check in on Genlic.

* * *

The door closed behind him. It was a large spacious room filled with modernized pillars and curvy architecture, his own statement on what had to move forward. The stars of the perpetual night cast fractal shadows down onto the floor. Not too bright, but never too dark."Now there's a Koopa I feel sorry for." he muttered, smirking.

"Why's that?" asked Kylie, walking to the dresser.

"His acquired prestige will bring him more than his fair share." said Ludwig. "Or rather, he will see the world's outcry upon his doorstep and will be forced to deal with that situation. Still, he is more than equipped for the task."

"Oh definitely." said Kylie. "He's got that spunk I know too well. Plus, he's nicer than you."

"Not a difficult feat to accomplish." remarked Ludwig. He walked to a small bar next to him and poured himself a shot. Before he took it, he suddenly remembered something. "Ah yes, I must call Ignatius." he said to himself, taking out his PDA.

Kylie looked at him. "This pole shift business is pretty serious, isn't it?"

"Only because someone as extravagant as myself is host to an innumerable amount of responsibilities." replied Ludwig. "To be expected from a crown heir, stated or no. The shift merely accelerates the situation by throwing the problems of an angered populace onto my shoulders, as you've seen by my recent trip to water land."

"That place is full of haters." said Kylie. "They all love your sis and...well, no one else actually."

"Her propaganda campaign has worked out quite well for her." said Ludwig. "Though doubtless it matters no longer." He got out his phone. "In any event, I must learn what exactly Ignatius has built."

"I'll go relieve myself..." she said before disappearing into the bathroom. Ludwig dialed Iggy's number and pressed send. He was eager to hear of his brother's plans, though was rather doubtful of the climate of his location. Clearly, it had something worthy of value.

But Iggy never picked up. His voice mail came up instead and Ludwig promptly hung up at the sound of it. Iggy's phone was now in range, unlike a few hours before when it wasn't even connected to the network. That puzzled Ludwig, as his custom wireless was wide enough to encompass not only the Galaxy, but the entire circumference of the Mushroom World as well. The only places he could think of that could block his signal was Genlic or somewhere deep underground. Although, considering that he was working at an archeological site...

A pair of arms wrapped around his stomach, interrupting his thoughts. "Your brothers are fine." she said quietly. "Stop worrying about them. We only have so long to enjoy ourselves before it's over, right?"

Ludwig sighed. "You're right. It could all end right now, and all our plans would've come to naught." He turned around and looked at her. "I would rather indulge myself in the moment..." They embraced and kissed. As their tongues swirled around each other, he pushed her backwards before both stumbled onto the bed behind them. Kylie moaned as she felt her lovers hands caressing down her body.

"...is it still too early?" she asked softly.

"If you don't want any fun, then it's never too early."

"But what if something happens to you?" she put her finger on his chest. "You have a lot to lose. Who'll take care of the family?"

"The family takes care of itself. What does concern me is the inevitability of your term hampering your agility and physique because those abilities will be increasingly called for as the environment disintegrates."

Kylie was silent. She had not thought of that.

"Would I rather see the love of my life perish with her stillborn which would be an unbearable tragedy, or see myself perish and yet see you live? To me, the choice is obvious." He smiled. "I understand you are eager, but we must be patient a little while longer. Also, I understand that the emotive tendencies of one in labor tend to be more...sensitive."

Kylie huffed in defeat. "You're right, all I can do is tease you." Her feet were already rubbing up and down his shaft. Ludwig grinned, he had always liked it when Kylie did this. But he was known for his self control, and there was no way Kylie was going to make him cum that early.

He pushed forward through her feet and placed his throbbing member in her wet spot. Kylie whimpered at his gigantic size: the royal family was known to be well endowed and today was no different. Soon she was whining loudly as he thrust in and out of her sex. Ludwig once again remembered the day he studied female anatomy and was extremely grateful for doing so.

It didn't take long for Ludwig to feel his semen starting to work its way up. He slowed on impulse, her tightness nearly making him come. He pulled out to paint his load on her face, but she whined and squirmed.

"I want more!" Kylie demanded. "Put it back..."

Smirking, Ludwig rubbed the head of his member with her sex, making her whine even more.

"Put it back." she whispered.

Finally, he obliged and quickly pounded her. She cried out, his thick member penetrating deep inside her. But because Ludwig pounded her so fast, he felt like he would climax any second. Before he did, he suddenly pulled out of her and stuck his member inside her other hole.

"AHHHH fuuuck youuuuuu...mmmmmmmm..." Ludwig had given her some surprise buttsex and she should have expected it. He loved her tight cavity and couldn't get enough of it. He moved slow, savoring each thrust.

"Ahhhh...You ruined it..." she said, frowning.

"How so? If one is to raise children, this is precisely what you will be feeling."

She laughed. "Shut up." They kissed and he began to thrust a little harder. Kylie's screams were a lot louder and Ludwig took the opportunity to play with her nipples. But she grabbed his arm in response, making him go faster until he knew he couldn't take much more of it. With one final thrust, he pulled out and squirted all over her face, painting it with his sticky sperm.

"I had just orgasmed and what do you do? You put it in my butt." she said.

"Would it be better if I denied you that orgasm the next time?" asked Ludwig.

She shook her head and smiled. Knowing Ludwig, that's exactly what he would do next time. "You're a bastard sometimes...but that's why I love you." She gave him a long slow kiss and they both enjoyed that seemingly endless moment together. The room fell silent and the stars beamed down overhead.

Eventually, Ludwig broke the kiss. "Best to wash yourself, my love. I shall do what needs to be done in the meantime."

"Okay." Kylie got up and entered the bathroom as Ludwig watched her go off. He was glad, as she would make a fine queen. He had only wished that they were living during more pristine times and not the actual apocalypse. But upon deeper thought, when civilization crumbles in the face of annihilation, the only thing that really matters are your loved ones and Ludwig knew this as a truth. Maybe it was because of it that their bond was far stronger than he had ever imagined it to be. Her eagerness for a family was but one example, something that would have to wait. Ludwig smiled, grateful for what he had.

He got up from the bed and walked over to his desk, which had a number of books and open journals filled with various things. He sat down, grabbed a piece of gold-lined paper along with a pen and began to write. As long as it was going to be, he knew he had to finish it before Kylie got out of the shower.


	16. 16

As he watched Ludwig and Kylie fall asleep in each others arms, he contemplated the meaning of relationship. What did it mean to love? Certainly, the disasters and the looming specter of the end had brought him to this question once again, something he had always avoided. He was never one to understand feelings, let alone the feelings of others. But now, for some reason the issue was front and center. Why?

An incessant beeping interrupted his thoughts. Considering all that was going on, it might have been a blessing in disguise. At length, Iggy opened his eyes, sitting upon a large leather chair. The familiar sight of his laboratory came to view, filled with electronics, beakers with various liquids and numerous computer consoles laying about. In front of him was the wand, standing upright within a closed glass cylinder. Various sensors spun around it, spewing out multiple colors of lasers in an attempt to understand the device. Behind this on the far back wall were three very large screens showing the current data analysis in real time.

One of the analysis segments of his experiment had completed. Iggy looked at one of the computer consoles, which on its screen showed a completed message inside a terminal console. Suddenly, the message disappeared and a batch of commands executed through terminal. Iggy had "sent" the command. The screens on the back wall updated the analysis with the newly retrieved information. The right screen showed the full electromagnetic spectrum and the range of light waves that the wand emitted. The middle screen showed how the wand synchronized time around itself, which Iggy theorized had something to do with his ability to see past events, as with Ludwig and Kylie. The wand was displayed on screen within a spinning vortex of an endless variety of threads, which came from outside the screen and wrapped itself around the device. Various computers tried to keep up with the threads, which Iggy had deduced were actual threads of time. The updated information was now beginning to suggest actual time periods.

"Not surprised." he muttered to himself. He had seen it already, but it was also a great burden for him. Focusing on reality was a great challenge, but was something he was gradually gaining the upper hand in. And it wasn't just because of the challenges the wand continuously presented him: he had gained only a few hours of sleep that night, too curious to analyze the powers of the wand. He wondered how long he could stay awake. He blinked as he continued to look at the screens in front of him.

The left screen showed a register of particles that the wand had collected over the centuries. The updated analysis sensed a detection of neural and DNA particles within the wand. To Iggy's mind, it was more likely that his skin particles had been detected, or perhaps some fingerprints from past holders on the wand. Still, he was curious. His eyes darting across several computer screens, he sent commands to analyze the various types of DNA that were present on the wand. The lasers spinning around the wand itself changed to an indigo-like color and spun a little faster. Iggy sighed and drank some coconut water with a slice of tangerine next to him. If there was one thing that hadn't changed, it was his taste in strange drinks.

The left screen then displayed a handful of locations where the DNA particles were present. A few names were arrowed, including Iggy's and a list of a few kings that once held it as well. Iggy was hardly surprised and took another sip of his drink, but stopped when he suddenly saw the list skyrocket. The number of different DNA strands suddenly shot up over 100 types, then 1,000, then 100,000 and then well over a million. The screen listed the names that each individual DNA particle was carried by, but the space become so cluttered by the sheer number of them that they were unreadable and became a mess of overlapping letters.

Iggy just sat there, glass in his lap, not sure what to think now. His analysis clearly listed the actual names of each body that the DNA had been present in. With the list over 5 million now, Iggy realized that somehow, the wand takes samples from every being it comes into range with. He didn't know what that range was, but it was obviously significant. He also did not quite understand the purpose of it. Why would you need a database such as this? A DNA memory bank of his race? Iggy didn't know. Maybe it had something to do with past visions?

More beeping. Several unknown particles had been discovered, displayed on screen. One of them seemed to emit a type of radiation: light waves, the light that seemed to be ever present around the wand. Iggy sent a trace command to terminal. The analysis seemed to indicate that these particles were not inherent to the wand during its construction, as they themselves rotated around it. Yet it was not DNA or neural particles. Then, what was it?

Iggy saw that they were organized with the DNA and that they accumulated over time. Getting an idea, he got up from his seat and stopped the rotating sensors. Opening the closed glass cylinder, he placed his hand upon the wand and immediately the readings on the screen changed. An influx of the "light" particles were shown flowing in and out of Iggy. They were from the body alright, but that still didn't explain what they were. Did they have something to do with emotions? Spirit?

His middle screen showed an incoming thread from the future about to manifest itself. In his minds eye, he saw Larry calling him from a bar. A moment later, Iggy's phone rang and he could only smile to himself. "I'll be down." he thought as he took the wand back into his possession.

* * *

He never picked up. "So much for a drinking buddy." muttered Larry. He wanted to discuss his new wand with him, since there was no denying it now. If Larry could see him, then-

"_I'll be right down."_ he suddenly heard. Larry turned around but saw no one around him. It was vivid and clear, but louder than what his imagination could conjure up. Iggy's voice mail suddenly kicked in.

"Hi, this is Iggy Koopa. I'm busy, so-"

Larry killed the call. Given his previous drunken escapades, he wasn't sure if that was his mind playing tricks with him or not. But considering that he had only one drink thus far, he decided it could be possible with Iggy's new wand.

In any event, he sat down and ordered his usual bourbon. His own wand had been giving him some strange visions and he wasn't sure about them. He hoped Iggy could help clear that up. He also wondered how the alcohol would affect them, silently wishing that it'd be able to wash his visions away somehow with its magical spell, but his logic knew better. This was not some bad relationship, this was something he had to be responsible with. And yet, he was already missing his normal life.

After some length, Iggy entered the bar. He sat on the stool next to Larry and ordered a simple beer.

"What's the good news?" asked Larry.

Iggy thought to himself. He took a few chugs of his beer then looked at him. "We both have really cool wands."

"Yeah we—hey, how did you know?" Larry asked, though suspecting the answer.

"I saw it when you revealed yourself." Iggy said. "They all communicate with each other. Well, when they have an owner."

"Oh." Both went into an awkward silence. Larry stared out the window towards Mushroom World lost in thought. Iggy glanced at the TV's overhead. Coverage over the riots and the so-called economic recession were on full blast now. One group had tried to protest near the castle itself, but they were literally dragged away by the castle guards. Evidently, it wasn't just the Koopa Kingdom feeling the setbacks. Pictures of the Mushroom Kingdom showed lines of Mushroom people waiting to fill out a job. Diamond City's harbors were being flooded, even though there hadn't been any rain in the vicinity for at least a week. Many of the Yoshi Islands had simply disappeared over the past few weeks.

And yet as the camera panned over the greater Koopa City showing most citizens too occupied within their own little lives to care about the protests surrounding them, Iggy remembered Mario's words from his initiation. Little folk were called that for a reason. Little imaginations and little minds perform little things. Give the mind something too big to comprehend and it'll be too much for them. True or false, it'll deny something like the Destroyer since a mind that small cannot possibly see it within its limited perception. Sometimes, ignorance is truly bliss.

"It kinda sucks." Larry murmured. "Having these wands...you're never the same."

"In a way." said Iggy. "But you have to keep in mind that very few out there are that intelligent enough to use them, let alone figure out what's going on."

"That's a part of dad's program." said Larry. "Trust me Iggy, I've been looking through his programs for years. You won't believe some of the shit he pulls off. There's his whole food additive pro-"

"I know the basics." interrupted Iggy. "It's a part of my job to help wake up the species now."

"Oh? The wand told you that?"

"Well, sort of. It's more like intuition. It leads me on and I figure the rest out myself." He chugged his beer. "I already had some...interesting experiences, heh. Just a blur to most people, but it must be if they're all drugged up on all that brainwashing, right?"

"Yeah." said Larry. "Reality is probably like a dream for them. At least they hope so."

"It's another thread in time, one of many." said Iggy. "You could say this is the waking dream but...I don't want you to get lost in it."

"Don't worry, I'm losing myself out of choice." laughed Larry, taking another sip of his bourbon. "My wand is pretty tricky to handle man. You know I'm not a full time magic user like you."

Iggy nodded.

"And now I'm being forced to use it. I don't even know what's it's supposed to do, other than it's tied to Genlic somehow. It just makes my vision feel...fluid. I've also been seeing weird things in my head."

"Hm?"

"I'm kind of ruling out my imagination now cause it keeps happening," continued Larry, "But I see the whole family in my head, constantly, all the time. What they're doing, where they're going. It's been hard trying to find myself again, you know? I was hoping alcohol would help stop all of that."

"Alcohol has no direct effect on magic unless the spell being used has to do with sensory perception." said Iggy. "It definitely has no effect on my visions and it sounds like my wand is harder to control than yours."

"You're a genius though." commented Larry.

"It also seems to have a different purpose from the other two."

Larry snapped his finger, remembering his previous vision. "Yes, that's right! I saw two other wands in a vision I had: one was yours and the other was the Wand of Koopa. I was wondering if my wand was as powerful as Dad's simply because I can see it, but I have no idea. I didn't even know you had a wand that powerful either."

Iggy sighed. Knowing that Larry held the black wand, he had no other choice.

"Do you remember the legend of the wands?" asked Iggy.

"What, the wand of kings and the wand of sages? Yeah, I read about that in school. Wand of kings went to the Koopa King, wand of sages went to the Grand Magikoopa."

"Right. Well, it was said that the wand of sages resided in a great black fortress."

Larry thought for a moment before it hit him. "Damn! You're saying this is it? Why the hell would he give this to me? I'm not even good at magic! Kamek is the Grand Magikoopa, right?"

"That he is." Iggy went silent for a moment before continuing. "But the legend goes deeper than that. The legend that's taught now is what survived the dark ages, but there is an older variant."

"Oh?"

"I found it on one of my...adventures. Do you remember the gods?"

Larry thought for a moment. "Vaguely. They made us, right?"

"Yeah. Well, they had some kind of wand system set up when they occupied Mushroom World. It was made up of not two, but three wands and these three wands controlled how we evolved as a race. Each wand performed a different function to keep our race in line so to speak."

"Wait a minute." said Larry. "If I have the wand of sages and Bowser has the wand of kings, then-"

But Larry was cut off as Iggy protruded from his shell the top of his wand, it's radiance glowing upon the surprised face of Larry before it disappeared as quickly as it came.

"Yeah..." Iggy muttered. "I have the wand of spirit."

"That's its name?" asked Larry.

"Err, I got that from a vision I saw, a vision from the far past. I'm not sure if it's the real name, but I've heard it several times. I've also been hearing many things about a trio of kings, but I'm not sure what that means yet."

"Ughh.." Larry drank the rest of his glass. "I don't want to rule dad's shit hole."

"I don't think it works like that." said Iggy, his claws on his chin. "The kings I'm seeing are performing different roles in Koopa society but what those exactly are I'm not quite sure yet."

"...You can see the past?" Larry asked.

"Yeah. I can also read people's thoughts." Iggy rubbed his eyes and sighed. "It's difficult."

"Wow, that would suck..." murmured Larry. "...but I did hear you say something about coming down here in my head. I almost thought it was me playing games with myself."

"That was real," said Iggy, "And I'm glad you heard it. Makes me feel a lot more confident about this whole thing."

"I bet. At least your wand 'speaks' to you. Mine doesn't really say anything."

"You might find some clues at Genlic if you look hard enough." suggested Iggy. That also reminded him of something. He pulled out a square mechanical contraption that looked a bit like a step pyramid. Pressing a button brought it to life. After stretching a pair of feet in both directions, it lifted itself up and turned on a set of lights which displayed a complex hologram of what appeared to be a dig site alongside a floating menu of buttons. Iggy pressed these, changing the display repeatedly as he tried to find something.

"So, is that it?" asked Larry, peering over.

"A part of it. Most of it is underground. Penny and I found an ancient bunker underneath the Temple of Inauro. Figures, huh? She's moving the entire hydroponic complex down there, up on the higher levels. The lower levels are designed to channel any inflow of water between the wall and the floor. Apparently, they hid in rooms above this drainage system." He pressed a few more buttons. "Okay, looks like she finished it."

"A lot easier working with other people, isn't it?" remarked Larry.

"Say that to our brothers." said Iggy, finishing the rest of his beer.

"Yeah, well you know how it is. Wendy's too much of a bitch to even consider her lifestyle burning up in front of her. Morton's...he just doesn't seem to care. I think he likes his luxury too much to let go of it. I tried talking him into the whole shelter thing, he was pretty passive about it. He did say he had something lined up in the Koopa Crags but that's all he told me. God only knows what Roy's up to."

"Holing up in there isn't a very good idea..."

"Hey, did I say Morton was smart?" asked Larry.

"No, but that's idiotic. That's an active volcano chain that's going to explode once the shift happens. Plus, that whole mountain range will be growing taller and I wouldn't to be living under that...well, unless I were Morton."

"See?"

"He should still get talked out of it." suggested Iggy. "Hell, Lemmy's idea is better than his. That reminds me, I need to check out his new place." But Iggy's brain told him to call him tomorrow. He was too tired.

"He found some spacecraft or-" Suddenly, the bar went pitch black. All the lights had gone out simultaneously. All the chatter ceased for a moment, before erupting into a huge noise.

"-something.." said Larry, looking around.

The window in front of the two Koopalings brought whatever light the Mushroom World had to offer, and with it they made out a growing number of heads behind themselves beginning to panic. Many had already left their chairs and were making their way out of the bar.

Iggy stared out of the window at his planet in front of him. Seeing it slowly tilting in place, he sighed and stood up from his stool. Larry followed the movements of his older brother and did likewise.

"Well, this is it." Iggy remarked.

Larry nodded. "Yeah. It was a fun ride."

Before Larry even finished, strange noises began to travel through the outer hull. Loud clangs came with small rumbles, which was enough for everyone else to flee the immediate vicinity. Everything was knocked over in their path as they flooded into the main hallways of the Galaxy.

But Iggy smiled. "Long live our bloodline, little brother. I wish you luck." He extended a claw and Larry hesitated, but he clasped it and shook hands. Not a moment too soon as a major crack opened up on the far right wall, sucking out much of the air and pulling much of the furniture towards it. Iggy and Larry bolted out of the room before an airlock sealed the room shut.

They made their way into a large throng of people, which amidst the shouts and the clatter were trying to reach their ships to escape the carnage. Trying to weed his way through the sea of people, Iggy looked around and saw that he had lost Larry somewhere in the mess. He took out his PDA and tried to see who he could call, until he saw a blinking word in the upper right hand corner.

"Offline." he muttered. The Galaxy's PDA network was already down and he suddenly realized how convenient it really was. Without it, he had to rely on his normal phone, which he wasn't sure would work. He got it out and looked at his contact list, but he couldn't pick up any service. Iggy frowned. He had no idea how he would contact his brothers again, let alone telling Penny what was happening now. He was on his own.

A ripple of noise rang through the hull above him, cracking many windows which made the crowd go hysteric and flood out of the room into any hallways they could find. Many of the ramps on the upper levels rattled until they came loose and broke off of their supports, slamming onto the ones below them, creating a domino effect until they reached ground level. Iggy looked at the crowd and back at the display. He had an idea.

Grabbing his wand, he ran for the fallen walkways before jumping on top of the lowest one. Walking up them like a set of stairs he ran for the 5th level, narrowly avoiding a girder that flew at him. He saw a stairwell ahead that could bring him to his destination, the 7th level where his rooms resided.

He ran past the cracked window but the station shuddered again. The window behind him burst into pieces and the sudden air pressure nearly halted him in his tracks. Using his wand, he thought for a moment and defied gravity, lifting up into the air. Fighting against the outflow, he flew through the door and up the stairwell to the 7th floor. It was just in time: the stairwell began to squeeze together as he flew out of the other side. Back on his fleet, he saw that he was in a damaged horizontal elevator shaft, lined with innumerable doors of residence. A red stamp on the wall bore the location: K71. Having some ways to go, Iggy ran down the shaft and, using his wand again, ran much faster than he could physically able. Soon he reached a vertical shaft, in which he wasted no time flying up it, dodging falling debris left and right. A loud crash was suddenly heard above and large chunks of glass came streaming down. Iggy lifted his wand and froze them in place as he ascended. He saw that an elevator car was now blocking the shaft and ultimately, his floor. Seeing that the elevator was moving towards the back wall also made him uneasy. "Give me a break." he muttered.

Upon reaching floor K78, Iggy flipped his wrist and the wand hurled the glass in the other direction. Turning right, Iggy flew down the shaft looking for some kind of entrance to the floor above. Eventually his luck prevailed; spotting a manhole, he easily blew it open with a blast of energy and finally reached floor K79.

It was heavily damaged, with piles of debris littering the track and electrical wires shooting sparks in all directions, probably the cause of a few small fires in some places. Iggy landed upon his feet and scrambled over the hazards, while at the same time trying to determine where K79-772 was. He was apparently not far off, only about 10 rooms down. The rumbling began to get more violent and more debris started to fall from the ceiling. Deciding that flight was too risky, Iggy instead jumped from one pile to the next as quick as he could.

However, when he was about 2 rooms away, Iggy came across a gigantic pile that blocked the entire shaft: it appeared the ceiling itself had caved in from the upper floor. Iggy's heart sank. He had to think of something quick, and getting through such an obstacle quickly was not easy. He inhaled as his imagination ran wild, and knew he had to give it a shot.

Pointing his wand out in front of him, he closed his eyes ad let his mind's eye guide his direction. Through it, he saw the tip of the wand growing brighter and brighter, and felt his hand get more and more uncomfortable. A bright hot flame grew, and as Iggy approached the rubble he saw that it either melted or was pushed out of the way like a paperweight. Like a hot knife through butter, Iggy walked through the rubble, and when it surrounded him on all sides, raised the wand above his head. As he walked forward, the rubble itself scurried away and yet behind him it closed his newly carved path again as if nothing had happened.

Iggy suddenly reached a pair of two steel girders blocking his way. Iggy grew desperate again, now he was in the thick of it and he could not move his wand unless he wanted a pile of debris to fall on top of him. Iggy knew that breathing fire would take too long to melt it. He needed another plan.

Another rumble nearly made him stumble, and he accidentally pointed the wand at an angle which allowed some debris to fall on him. But that was when his idea took hold. Ever so slowly, he moved his wand towards the front of him, allowing more debris to pile up around his shell. Soon, only his neck was free, but that didn't matter. Closing his eyes, he concentrated upon the glowing hot sphere in front of him, which soon began to envelope his entire being. Within a glowing ball of hot fire, Iggy increased the heat intensity until his arm was literally shaking from all the power. Finally, thinking that he had enough energy, Iggy gave a cry and suddenly he launched forward through the girders, melting them instantly and through his front door at blinding speeds before slamming into a pile of rubble in his foyer.

Iggy groaned, his muscles already tired from a lack of sleep. But he had to keep going; he got himself back on his feet and managed to stagger into the living room. But he was dismayed to find that much of his room was damaged: a steel girder had fallen from the ceiling and had smashed his holographic television among other things and many of the walls had blown out. It wasn't until he saw one of the cabinets that he nearly freaked out. There, tucked under a table was most of his computer collection, now smashed and totally destroyed. The table had fallen under considerable weight and had crushed what lay underneath. Iggy cringed and shook his head. _Not now_.

Thinking, he looked for any sort of computer and made a sigh of relief as he saw one of his best laptops, a solar array, sitting on the kitchen counter unscratched. He grabbed a laptop bag next to his damaged computers and placed the laptop inside and turned to leave, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw something black and pink not too far by. Penny left her laptop behind when she went out. He grabbed and bagged that as well, flung the bag over his shoulder and walked out of the room into his laboratory. The room he was in no more than an hour ago was now a total mess, with broken glass all over the floor, tables overturned and the airlocks covering the windows on the far wall. Fortunately, he had saved his results from earlier onto his massive computer network, which updated itself on every computer he owned.

Passing through the room, Iggy entered the observatory where he had made a dock for his new ship earlier. Unfortunately he came at a bad time. Much to his horror he saw the giant telescope rocking back and forth until a large shudder ripped it from its bolts. Iggy thought about running under it, but wasn't fast enough as the telescope came crashing through the wall next to him and onto the floor.

Iggy inhaled and exhaled. Another obstacle. He backed up and knew he had to do something he hadn't done since the Mario days. He started running towards it, but then used his wand to jump very high into the air. He narrowly missed some hanging debris before barely managing to land on his two feet and continuing his drive towards his exit. Through another door and there it was. Dantek's ship was still in one piece and Iggy wasted no time boarding the vessel. Tossing the laptop bag onto the sofa as the door closed, he ran to the cockpit and immediately pushed the drawer containing the crystal into the system. Just like before, the ship powered to life and displayed a series of holograms in ancient. One of them was the Mushroom World, shown tilting in place. Another hologram seemed to show the Galaxy, newly scanned and identified as being torn apart from all sides. An identifier showed his current position. "Yeah, I'm working on it..." Iggy muttered and he grabbed the wheel and thrust it forward. The ship lifted off and effortlessly blasted out of the docking bay into space.

Iggy breathed a sigh of relief, glad that was over. He didn't expect the Galaxy to crumble so soon and was thankful that the most important provisions were already set up at his survival site. He would just need to work on the finishing touches upon the surface.

He glanced out the window and saw the destruction of the Galaxy in full view. Almost all of the 6 columns attached to the central hull had detached and all had suffered severe damage. The whole complex seemed to be slowly moving towards Mushroom World with an uncountable number of ships ahead of it fleeing the titanic morass, like bees escaping a crumbling honeypot. Explosions rocked one of the columns which brought Iggy back to reality. He needed to find a way to land without blowing up in the process.

A warning siren shot from the console, and large interwoven lines surrounding the pictured globe showed Iggy that he was being pulled in. He quickly tried to bring up some type of map of the world's surface to hopefully triangulate his landing zone and establish a trajectory, but he was moving too quickly. He only managed to find the coordinates of the Koopahari desert when he entered the upper levels of the atmosphere. The ship attempted to correct course, but Iggy was forced to turn this way and that as he tried to avoid the falling debris of the Galaxy. He passed by many ships, which looked more like sheering fireballs about to strike the surface. He even came across a large chunk of one of the columns and Iggy narrowly sped past it before it hit him. That was going to leave a mark on the surface, and Iggy chuckled at the thought.

As he entered a thick cloud layer, the debris suddenly disappeared and Iggy was left alone for some time. Looking at his current route, he saw he was somewhere over the southern Yoshi isles and moving west-north-west. Iggy pinpointed the location of the temple of Inauro and easily re-coordinated his trajectory. He was lucky for heading in generally the right direction in the first place.

The clouds vanished and coincidentally, the ship's radar siren-ed. 4 ships were detected heading towards him from the south-west and were on a near collision course. Iggy pulled up and the 4 flew by underneath him. None of the ships seemed to be operational; no thrusters fired behind them which confused Iggy. But one of the ships further caught his eye: by it's obvious designs, it was a vessel from the Koopa Kingdom. He watched as it suddenly slammed into one of the other ships, making it fly off towards the north. Peering into one of the windows, he was startled to find his father, King Bowser Koopa staring right back at him. It wasn't before long that Iggy put the pieces of the situation together. It was just like him. His siblings often joked about it due to its futility, though at the end of the world where so many things were rendered futile...

But as soon as they came, the ships were lost behind him in a veil of cloud. Given the chances, Iggy wondered if he'd ever-

The ship violently shuddered, which broke Iggy's thoughts. Looking down, he was shocked to see the holographs having disappeared and the lights gone dead. None of the controls worked. When the ship started to free fall, that's when it hit him.

An Electromagnetic Pulse.

"Oh shit..." He tried to think of something. He pulled out the ignition crystal drawer which still glowed and pushed it back inside, but nothing happened. The endless expanse of the desert appeared below him, stretching in all directions. But the dig site was nowhere to be seen.

Iggy pulled out his wand and tried to think of a miracle he could pull off. He thought about levitating the ship, but nothing happened. Was that beyond his capabilities? He then thought about re-firing the engines, but a moment later the ship crash landed and Iggy's consciousness went black.

"_One day, you might retrieve it." said a voice._

* * *

Larry slammed into the wall and winced as pain shot through his arm. His perspective refocused on his family, which he couldn't see clearly in his mind any longer. He could think of all the possibilities, but the noise and the flashing red lights wouldn't let him. He had to keep going.

The hallway had tilted to the right and Larry struggled with his footing as he walked upwards on the outer edge between the wall and the floor. Upon reaching the door at the end of the hall, Larry pulled out his upgraded security card and reached down to swipe it across the security sensor. The door slid back and Larry saw the control room had also tilted to the right amidst the cries of operators and helmsmen. With the floor slanted Larry struggled to get inside, using his arms to push himself through the doorway and onto the back wall. He tried to find something to grab onto that could make him reach the commander's chair but as he did so, the room began to right itself into a more or less normal position.

"Pitch and roll re-stabilized, but it can't hold much longer!"

Larry walked up to the seat and sat down on it. He wondered if taking this offer from Ludwig was really such a good idea.

"Keep it there as long as you can." said Larry. This prompted most of the operators to look back at him with surprised expressions. "Oh, right. I'm commander of the Galaxy now until we land...or until we all die. Whichever."

He was met with silence. Larry looked at the main screen, with was filled with a large number of cams overlooking parts of the Galaxy. Many areas looked damaged and abandoned, other areas had bodies all about. One showed a large collection of ships that had launched from one of the escape bays. The cameras outside of the Galaxy showed the Mushroom World was much closer now and steadily growing in size.

"I take it we're being drawn into the atmosphere." Larry frowned.

"Correct sir." said a Monty Mole. "We will hit the upper layers in 10 minutes."

Larry held his head in his hand and tapped his fingers, trying to come up with a battle plan. But the unpredictability of the inevitable breakup left him with few choices. He knew the control room could detach from the central hull, but that would leave the rest of the Galaxy completely uncontrolled. Each column had the potential to be piloted on its own, but there was no guarantee of that happening especially if they were damaged already.

As he tried to come up with a strategy, he noticed a blue blur pass by on one of the screens. Looking at it, he saw King Bowser on a dock, getting ready to board his ship and rapidly talking to his minions. Suddenly, Ludwig appeared on the other side of the dock and prepared to board his ship before Bowser shouted something at him. Ludwig said something back and the two went into an argument before they both stopped and stared at each other for a long while. Finally, Bowser gave up and boarded his ship, which promptly took off moments later. Ludwig however held back, and looked around for some time. It was only when the dock itself began to crack that be quickly jumped onto his ship and blasted off himself.

Larry shook his head. He shouldn't be wasting his time.

"Okay, give me the quick run down." he said. "What's happening, besides the obvious?"

"Power is out in all sectors. Emergency power activated in a handful, including this sector." said a Buzzy Beetle. "Airlocks have activated. The citizens were moving towards the escape pod bays, successful launches unknown. The asylum did not gain emergency power and multiple breaches have been recorded. We still have access to most of the Galaxy's cameras due to their wireless functionality."

"Yeah." said Larry. "Do we know if any of the secondary command centers are active?"

"Scanning..." said the Buzzy Beetle and a few moments passed. Multiple screens came up of similar looking control rooms, some filled with Toads or other creatures while others were simply empty. It seemed the Mario and Daisy sectors were taking control of themselves. The Kongs looked frantic about something as they jumped up and down at their stations. But 3 sections (Wario, Yoshi and Koopa) were empty.

"Wario column cannot access the control room due to multiple door jams in hallway 22B." said the Buzzy Beetle. "Most of the Yoshi column has emergency power, but it is unknown why they have not taken command. The Koopa column is the most severely damaged with no emergency power in any sector. The main power line to the central hub was cut."

"Then it's a deadweight." said Larry. "That one goes first." He only hoped his siblings had already made it out of there.

"You have a plan, sir?" asked a Piranha Plant.

"Yes. As we enter the atmosphere, we drop them off one by one. If we stay together, it'll leave a huge mess where ever this thing lands. It's better to spread out and leave tinier craters on the surface, rather than have something as big as this end a small kingdom overnight."

"But sir!" said a Koopa Troopa. "Would that not break the cover of the Destroyer? Isn't it better to just land in one piece?"

Larry smiled. They were starting to get it. "Landing in one piece has us at a bad chance of surviving." he replied. "Not mentioning whatever we land on will be vaporized along with a good chunk of this hull. It's better to do this in pieces, I'm afraid."

"But...!"

"It was going to happen eventually. I think we all know that."

The Koopa Troopa fell silent and went back to work. Larry tapped his fingers and looked around the room. With his new wand, his authority could no longer be tested so easily. He knew know that even if Bowser disagreed with him, he'd be hard pressed to make him change his decision. Not that he could in any event.

Then, there was a loud slam and the hull shook. "We have entered the upper levels of the atmosphere." said the Monty Mole.

"On screen." said Larry. The cameras disappeared, giving way to the wide expanse of clouds that drew ever closer. The hull began to glow a deep red as the complex descended towards the planet, producing large smoke contrails in its wake. Vessels originally trying to escape the demise suddenly found themselves scurrying themselves out of the behemoth's path.

In the control room, the hull continued to shake with jolts becoming more and more violent.

"Multiple electrical fires have broken out on K83 to K98! It is spreading throughout the column!"

"Dump it!" shouted Larry and a moment later, a large "clunk" was heard before the column drifted away from the complex. Larry watched as fiery explosions rocked through many of its windows and chunks of its hull ripped away from its descent before it was lost in a thick layer of clouds.

"This is going to get ugly..." Larry muttered to himself.

"Fires reported on D12 and D86!"

"A major section of hull has ripped open from P16 to P36! Flying debris is threatening other sectors!"

"The Kong's are requesting to be detached from the Galaxy!"

"Current heading!" shouted Larry.

"Heading north-north-east, we are above the northeastern Yoshi Isles!"

"Alright, dump the Kong and Yoshi columns." Two clanks were heard and the Kong column, identified with the large DK symbol floated away to the left. Larry saw secondary thrusters fire up and knew they still had control of the craft. The Yoshi column, being located in the back simply dropped straight down with no control.

"We're headed in that direction...adjust the course to Genlic, if you can."

"Roger!"

"The fires are spreading to the other columns! Daisy's column is in danger of being engulfed!"

"Cameras 5 through 15 are offline!"

"One third of Mario's column is ablaze!"

"Sir! We are at risk of electrical fire if it spreads to the control room!"

Indeed, Larry saw Daisy's column engulfed in flames. It was a wonder that most of her hull was still intact. Even then, that fire had spread to many of the other columns including Mario's column, whose bottom half was rocking with explosions. The fire on Peach's column was working its way to the control room.

"Sir! We must detach the columns NOW!"

"Bring the other control rooms onscreen again." ordered Larry. The remaining rooms were displayed. Evidently, the Wario control center was now occupied by none other than Wario himself, who was trying to detach himself from the Galaxy. All of the other columns' controls rooms were abandoned save Mario's, whose Toad's struggled to keep the fires away from them. Peach's room was ablaze.

"Hey doofus! Let this thing go, will ya?" Wario semi-politely asked.

"I was going to say good luck in the end and all that," said Larry, "But since most already bailed out of this, or was fried to a crisp..." He brought up a numerical keypad on his armrest and pressed a number of them in sequence before something else flipped around on the other armrest: two large buttons, one red and one yellow. "...I was just going to say 'Have a good life.'" he finished, chuckling.

"Hey, wait a minute! You're Larry, arn't ya?" asked Wario.

"...and?"

"Heh heh. You are only lucky son of a bitch, you know that?" said Wario before his screen went to static.

"Yeah...I am." Larry said to himself before pushing the red button. Instantly, all of the columns detached from the central control room and went in random directions as Larry passed over the Eastern Mushroom Sea. The room's thrusters fired and guided the craft on a rough trajectory towards Genlic, whose tall black spires could be seen reaching into the thick black clouds that surrounded it.

"All columns detached! Current touchdown estimated to be 10.6 miles from Genlic."

At that moment, several things happened. The power suddenly went out through the room, with only the front screen visible. The operators went frantic, but before Larry could say anything a sharp pain riddled through his skull. He winced, wondering if it was the alcohol he had earlier. But when the pain returned double-fold he clutched his head in near agony, befuddled and confused as to what was going on. His vision blurred and he did not see the ship pass through the final cloud layer and see the rocky wasteland of Genlic below.

"Cannot restore power!"

"What just happened?"

"10 seconds to impact!"

"All hands!" Larry managed to say and all the operators either moved from their seats or braced themselves for the collision. The Buzzy Beetle popped back into its shell, Piranha Plant went back into its pipe and the Monty Mole hid underneath his chair as other operators did similar. Taking one last look at the screen, Larry popped into his shell upon his seat.

Mere moments later, the central command center of the Galaxy collided with the ground like a meteor, unleashing a massive plume of dust and rock that expanded in all directions.


	17. 17

Hurried footsteps echoed through the hall. Panting heavily, he pushed open one set of doors after another, too anxious about his message to care for anything else. Ignoring the endless stares he barged forward until one pair of doors led him to his destination: the throne room. From the eastern passage he appeared and stared at the scene, not fully comprehending the impact of events around him. Still his duty remained. He marched up to a Koopaling sporting a growing red mane and curved horns that gave the illusion of maturity. The Koopaling had grown much taller than he last saw him, now towering above the advisers of war and intelligence that surrounded him. The soldier gave the alternate procedure and saluted.

"Your majesty!" barked the Koopa Troopa. "19 airships have appeared outside the Koopa Crags to the southwest. They are advancing northeast towards our position."

Bowser Koopa Jr. broke off his conversation and glared down at the soldier in annoyance. It was the last thing he needed, to have one of his relatives meddle in his affairs. The Koopatrols surrounding him murmured to themselves.

"That would put that armed mob in a pincer." said one. "They may stop their attacks on us."

Another snorted. "Nothing will stop them. The secret is out, it's everywhere. You think they're gonna lay down because we tell them to? That air fleet spells an all out war, friendly or not."

"Obviously." Junior muttered, and looked at the soldier again. "Did you spot the flag of the idiot who thinks he stands a chance against me?"

"The flag that was spotted was black with a purple indention-"

"Ts." Junior rolled his eyes and walked back towards the throne. "Of course it's him. Why did I bother to ask?" Junior turned and with a wave of his hand, the soldier spun on his heel and marched out of the room. "Give Roy my intentions." he said. "If he's not here to kill those useless eaters down there, then he can mind his own business." One of the Koopatrols nodded and spoke into his receiver. "Also, prepare my fleet. It's time to show the Kingdom their next king."

"Yes, your majesty."

Smiling, Junior walked across the hall to a pair of double doors. He could hear their muffled cries before pushing them aside. The air was filled with their voices, demanding the truth to the world. Why were meteor's falling from the sky? How did a half vaporized sink fall from the sky into an apartment complex? Why was there a communications satellite spotted floating off the coast? And most importantly, why was the weather so messed up?

In truth, Junior did not have all of those answers, but he knew some things. His father had hidden something big from him, the leaders of the world had hidden something big up in the sky. What it was he did not know, but he knew that none of his brothers told him about it, and that infuriated him. It just confirmed his long standing belief that he would never become one of them. But Bowser had practically turned him into the next king, so why did that matter now? If they didn't bow to his majesty, then he would take care of them, despite the short work they would become.

Despite that, Junior felt that Bowser installing him with new powers, then leaving at such short notice was a little suspicious. It was another invasion of the Mushroom Kingdom, sure. Junior had been through plenty of those, but how was this any different? More importantly, why wasn't he invited along? The kingdom could easily-

A large blast interrupted his thoughts. Looking down from his perch, he saw the mob throwing bob-omb's over the outer castle walls with the guards running a muck, dodging the blasts. Many were trying to cut through the gates with graters and other welding equipment. Junior shook his head. He needed to take care of what was in front of him first.

"They want a war, they got one." muttered Junior.

"Sir?" A Koopatrol said behind him. Junior turned. The air was increasingly abuzz with the sound of many propellers, a sign that the airships had launched.

"Has Roy responded?" asked Junior, already knowing what he would say.

"He has not, sir." said the Koopatrol.

"Well, if he decides to help me, he can. Respond to those useless eaters down there with brute force. We're not getting taken down this early."

"Y-yes sir."

* * *

"_All units report to the south block!"_

"_Charge Bullet Bill cannons as required. Move to appropriate stations..."_

With hurried footsteps, soldiers flooded out of the castle and onto the castle battlements. Stone windows flipped back, revealing the barrels of Bullet Bill cannons. Numerous airships had already launched from hidden places and surrounded the castle. But the display only served to fuel hatred of the commoners below, with tens of thousands in uproar over their plight, demanding a solution. Many began throwing bob-ombs over the castle walls, shouting for Bowser.

A few miles away, down closer to the ocean was a long line of airships watching the spectacle from a distance. Aboard one of them was Junior's determined and unfazed target, sitting on a chair overlooking the spectacle. To Roy, it was clear he wasn't going to negotiate. Despite the fact that Bowser himself could show up at any second, Junior insisted he had the god given right to do what he pleased.

"I'll knock some sense in 'em." he said to himself, though knowing the mob wouldn't make that easy. They knew what was going on now, as word had gotten out from multiple sources, not to mention the debris that still burned in the skies across the world. When the people bring the fight to themselves, things always got messy. Ignoring Junior's ultimatum, Roy instead waited for Junior's reaction. Would he actually turn against all of the Koopalings?

"Airships detected ahead of port!" said a bob-omb admiral. "Bowser's fleet has ascended!"

Roy raised an eyebrow. No one was allowed to do that, not even Junior himself. "You sure he ain't here?" he asked.

"Bowser has not returned contact." said the bob-omb. "We have received Bowser Junior's warning, but nothing else."

Roy grunted. Junior was being a little brat. He was not keen on following someone younger than him, let alone someone trying to play the part of King. As far as Roy was concerned, Junior was just keeping his daddy's seat warm until he came back. Still, even Roy was wise enough not to attack Bowser's fleet outright especially at this point in the game.

"Sir, we have confirmation! Junior has opened fire on the mob!"

Sure enough, from the fleet surrounding the castle, cannons had begun to fire around the outer castle perimeter where parts of the mob had tried to breach the wall. Roy was silent. It was something he would've done under normal circumstances, but with the fall of the Galaxy, the game had changed.

"You know what to do." muttered Roy.

* * *

Several miles away on top of a ruined building was a dark skinned Koopaling, watching two fleets of airships exchange cannon fire. Morton knew his brother was playing right into that brat's hand. With king dad's militia, there was no way a single Koopaling could overpower Junior at the moment. But what worried Morton more were the subtle changes Junior had gone through since he had last seen him. His red mane was a bit longer and he seemed a little more...ruthless.

"Daddy's not picking up..." he heard Wendy say, walking up behind him.

"Yeah, I can't call anybody either." said Morton. "The Galaxy must have smashed some of the satellites when we crashed."

"That's still no reason for Junior to act like an asshole. 'Oh look, daddy's gone! I get to play king and you don't!'" exclaimed Wendy.

"That's exactly it. There's something going on here." said Morton. "He knows well that if he tried to pull this off, we'd be on his tail in no time. And here he is."

"He's just taking advantage of us, you know." explained Wendy. "We're like, all over the place now and he thinks he can get away with whatever his tiny little mind can think up. Well, excuse me but I didn't hear dad's death knell yet. Did you?"

"He's alive somewhere." said Morton. "You know how he is. I wouldn't be surprised if he deliberately crashed into the Mushroom Kingdom."

"I wouldn't put it past him." sighed Wendy. "That means..." With Junior now in second in command, he would've known that already. There really wasn't a better time for him to take a shot at the throne, was there? Making up her mind, she turned and walked down the steps which she came.

"Where are you going?" asked Morton.

"To Water Land." she said. "Don't worry, I'll end this quickly."

"That's exactly what he wants, you know." said Morton.

"Hah! That runt has no idea what he just walked into." she said, walking down the steps before turning around a corner and disappearing.

Morton sighed. The last thing he wanted was for all of them in one place. While he was not one for strategy, he at least knew that Junior wanted to crush them all in one spot. They needed to spread out their attacks.

There was a rumble. Morton turned and saw several skyscrapers being fired upon by Junior's fleet, the buildings leaning and collapsing down upon other buildings in their wake. He had heard rumors about citizens arming themselves, but if it were true then things were getting serious. They would doubtlessly sway to Roy now.

Morton took out his military shortwave from his pocket.

"Admiral Cadaver, this is Admiral Brown. The dog has lept for the fish. I repeat, the dog has lept for the fish, over."

"kzzzzzt...roger Admiral Brown. Do we use the whistle? Please advise, over."

"Negative, Admiral. We throw him a stick against the eastern wind, and we watch what he does, over."

"kzzzt...roger. We have your coordinates and will pick you up for Sunday school, over."

"Pick me up a McKoopa while you're at it, over and out." Snickering, Morton put his shortwave away and wondered if they'd have the time for it, let alone anyone working there at this point. But the roaring of a tank came much sooner than expected to Morton's ears and he frowned. It was a while since he had something to eat.

The tank, camouflaged, drove up alongside the ruined building before halting. The hatch opened and a Koopa Troopa emerged, saluting the Koopaling. But his eyes widened as Morton had jumped from the building and soared downwards before violently landing on the tank, nearly throwing the backside upwards.

"To the eastern flank." said Morton. "And we'll stop to get a McKoopa while we're at it."

"Y-yes, sir." said the soldier. He then moved to allow Morton to enter the tank before the hatch shut. The tank roared off, being joined by many other tanks that had suddenly appeared behind other buildings as they made their way northward.

* * *

A snow storm howled in the sky as a plane prepared to touch down upon an icy runway, which led into an enormous megalithic structure in the distance, seemingly built from large and plain rectangular stones. The landing gear extended from the hull, large spiked wheels suitable for such an environment. Touching down, the craft easily maneuvered across the turf as large gray stone doors pulled back, revealing an underground aircraft hangar. A large crew of Koopa Troopas guided the craft into a bay before the aircraft came to a stop in a bay. Some cocked the wheels, others activated mechanics to hold the plane in place. But finally, the door to the plane opened and a walkway extended to the balcony. Out strutted Lemmy Koopa in a fur jacket and eyes half closed, exhausted after what had occurred. Unfortunately for him, he was almost immediately surrounded by a multitude of people telling him many different things at once. He sighed wearily to himself. If only he hadn't marathoned Dog Pirates Season 7 before all of this occurred...

"Your majesty, something major happened in the atmosphere!"

"Yeah." Lemmy muttered. Just keep walking forward...

"Welcome back, your majesty. Our mushroom supply has doubled from the citizen influx, however our syrup supplies are running thin."

"We'll fix it, don't worry about it." responded Lemmy.

"Your majesty! Are you aware of your brother's actions in the Koopa Kingdom?"

"Of Junior?" asked Lemmy. "Yeah, he thinks he's king all the time. It's nothing unusual."

"But what of his attack against Prince Roy? Surely this is not a declaration, is it?" That was a first.

"I'll see what's going on up there." said Lemmy, pointing up. "But it doesn't sound good."

"Neither are the news feeds, your majesty! The official Koopa News Network has broadcasted something about "The Galaxy," an international space station that has existed unknown to the rest of the world for several years is what's crashing down upon the planet."

Lemmy gave him a look as he continued on towards the elevator.

"Junior claims that hiding such a secret from us is unfathomable! Is any of that true, sire? Is King Bowser trying to hide something from us?"

Lemmy sighed. "Bowser is hiding something like he always is, but let's deal with the tabloids later, okay? There's a lot of other stuff we gotta do." He finally reached the elevator, where he pushed the call button.

"Sir, there have been no recorded incidences of earthquakes for our area. But we are still monitoring the Koopa Crags on our southern border, which have shown signs of increasing activity."

"Okay." muttered Lemmy. The elevator doors opened and Lemmy entered as the others tried to squeeze inside with him, though many were left in the hallway by the time the doors closed complaining to themselves. Lemmy pressed the button for the top floor and the elevator shot upwards.

"Your majesty, we have not detected any radio signals from King Bowser in the last several days."

Lemmy hummed. "Weird. But...that does explain Juniors temper, doesn't it?" He smirked.

"Perhaps your majesty, but isn't it peculiar that your brothers have also been more absent in the past several weeks?"

Lemmy ignored him as the elevator doors opened to the command room, which was covered in ice. Even the long table and chairs there were made of ice. Lemmy walked to his seat.

"Sir! May I suggest that your brothers know something that we do not?"

"Why is this "Galaxy" breaking up above us? Perhaps it has something to do with the planetary disturbances we have seen recently?"

Lemmy sat down.

"Sir, half of the Diamond City harbor has been flooded recently. We have reports of a steady migration of people northwards."

"Our Mushroom Kingdom trade route is currently being threatened by bandits, your majesty."

"Just what was that meteor storm?"

"Hey," said Lemmy, "Can someone make me a hot cider please?" Everyone stopped talking and looked at each other.

"I will!" chimed a purple toad with dreadlocks, who turned a corner and disappeared.

"Okay, and bring up the map too." A holographic globe was displayed, hovering over the center of the room. Large portions of the Koopa Kingdom were displayed in red. From what Lemmy saw, Roy had approached Bowser's Castle from the south, the most heavily defended area. Lemmy wasn't sure what Roy had in mind. But it didn't matter in any event.

"Your majesty, we have reports that Morton has started to siege the eastern flank of the castle!" said a Toad.

His contact network hadn't been ratted out yet, there was some good news. But still, it didn't matter. Lemmy sipped a bit of his hot cider before looking across the room in thought.

"I made a promise to myself a while ago," he said. "to not get involved in sibling rivalries. It's a waste of time and a lot of other things, and it accomplishes nothing. I mean yeah, I may be the weakest Koopaling, but it saved me so many times beyond count that I don't see why I should jump into this."

"Sir, pardon me...but this is no rivalry." said a Paratroopa. "This is clearly a fight for the throne. There has been no contact with Bowser for days now, and it seems 3 of his children are already after it."

"I never wanted to be king anyways, remember?" exclaimed Lemmy. "Why should I fight for something I don't care about?"

There was silence.

"And what about Ludwig? If this is a fight for the throne, he should be around somewhere."

"We have received no intelligence of his location in the past few days, either." said the Toad.

Lemmy hummed. That was a problem. It was usually Ludwig who sorted these situations out before anyone got hurt, especially with Junior's temper. But if this was a...no, Ludwig would take the situation seriously. He wouldn't move all his pieces at once. That meant it was a free-for-all.

On the globe, the southwestern coast of the Koopa Kingdom suddenly grew red.

"A large fleet has appeared off the coast! The flag indicates it is the fleet of Wendy O. Koopa!"

"So this is the real thing." Lemmy said to himself.

"Junior's fleet has left the castle! We have a video feed." Next to the globe came a feed of what appeared to be Bowser's personal mother ship exiting the castle. Pitch black and lined with triple rows of cannons on its broadsides, it was a formidable adversary.

"But...where is Bowser?" Lemmy asked aloud.

"Sir?"

"No one can pilot Bowser's ship. Something stinks here." Junior could not pilot that thing unless he was king. But if that was the case, then why wasn't there an announcement about it? That meant either Junior is staging a coup or Bowser was...in either case, it was still wrong. He was going to have to do it.

Lemmy stood up from his seat. "At least this once...I will play my part. It's the right thing to do. I have a plan too, but I know a lot of you wont like it."

"We stand by you until the end, Prince Lemmy!" said the Paratroopa. He saluted, which prompted all the officers in the room to do the same.

"I hope so." said a rather doubtful Lemmy. "Because if you look at Bowser's Castle here, the southern flank is getting hit by Roy and the eastern flank is being bombed by Morton."

"Bombs?" exclaimed a bob-omb.

"Yeah, Morton loves bombs so that's probably what he's doing." explained Lemmy. "Anyway, that leaves the western flank which is not far from the Koopa Crags that are always erupting. This means we must attack the northern flank."

"How is that so bad?" asked the Toad, but the Paratroopa glared at him. "In fact, it sounds like a really good idea. Junior wont expect that."

"Because the Crags separate us from the rest of the Koopa Kingdom entirely, well...except for one path through them: the Valley of the Koopas."

More than a few faces looked shocked at the sound of that place. "That place is evil." said a Koopa Troopa. "Pure evil. We should not go there unless we absolutely have to."

"While this is the best way to take the castle, I suggest thinking about what you're getting into, your majesty." said the Paratroopa. "The old kings of the Koopa Kingdom are buried in that valley, but the terror there does not sleep with them. Whole armies have entered and never returned. They are consumed and become the walking dead, joining the ranks of their dead masters. Even in death, the kings still wield their power."

"Are you talking about Boo's?" asked the Toad. "They can be tricky, but they are avoidable."

"These are no Boo's." responded the Paratroopa. "You become a ghost of yourself, under the power of the king that consumed you with no will of your own. No one has been able to destroy them, although there have been 2 people who did make it through that valley."

"One of them is my dad." said Lemmy.

"From what I-wait, really?" asked a surprised Paratroopa.

"You know how he got through?" asked the bob-omb.

"Well, he did leave his...diary here." Lemmy presented it and chuckled. "I guess he was a kid when he wrote this, since everything is all signed as 'Prince Bowser,' but yeah, he talks about what he did. Let's just say that we'll get through there as long as I use it, on the ground or in the air."

No one said anything as Lemmy put the diary away. "We'll take the castle and make sure Junior can't return to it. He has to be out in the open if we want to win this."

"Pardon me your majesty, but I never took you for a strategist." said a Koopa Troopa.

Lemmy smiled at him as he headed towards the elevator. "I can use my head when I have to, but I'd rather have fun with my friends, well...when I have time that is." Pressing the call button, the doors opened and the group once again got inside before the doors closed. Lemmy pressed the button for the barracks and the elevator shot downwards.

"I'll radio all of you when I am airborne, and then we will set out."

"Sir, how does this em...surprise of yours work?" asked the Paratroopa.

"It works in the air and it does something down below...but that's all I'm saying!" said Lemmy. The elevator stopped and the doors opened, with everyone stepping out, turning and saluting. Lemmy saluted back to them and smiled as the doors closed.

Finally alone, Lemmy held three buttons at the same time, which revealed a number pad underneath. He punched in a number combination and hit enter, sending the elevator shooting downwards. Once the level indicator went below B11, the lights suddenly switched off and were replaced by a dim red. About a minute passed before the doors opened to a dimly lit hallway lined with ancient writing. He casually stepped out and walked through the hall. If there was one thing he regretted, it was not getting Iggy to come down and look at what he found. He was certain this was not in recorded history, nevermind the textbooks. Then again, after seeing his dad's childhood journal, Lemmy thought better of it. Until he could see what this thing could do, it was probably better to keep this to himself.

He reached a large bolted security door. With a retina and fingerprint scanner the door unbolted and slid aside. Lemmy entered the room, and as the lights came on, they showed that it was far more than a room, but an ancient hangar bay. The floor dropped to an unknown depth, while above, floating in mid air was a strangely shaped spacecraft shrouded in shadow. From what could be seen, it was a sleek and rounded craft plated in gold with silver highlights and intricate designs.

Lemmy took out the diary again and flipped to a bookmark as he walked up a ramp leading to the ship. His dad's handwriting seemed to be terrible in his younger years and very rushed, and some places were hard to understand as they seemed to be more key phrases for himself. But evidently, before he could have become the next Koopa King, Bowser was ousted by an uncle of his while under the care of Kamek. He had been teleported to the north pole to starve to death before he found the megalithic ruin that had no name.

Lemmy walked inside the ship, and took a right to an area with luxurious couches. Flipping the page, he came across the drawing he had last seen: of a strange wand, said to be made of solid copper with a large diamond on its end. And the glow that emitted in front of him seemed to confirm it: inside a holder of some kind was a large copper wand, with a pairs of diamonds entwining around the wand until they reached the top, forming a circle of them on the outer rim. In the center was a massive diamond that was softly glowing and the rest of the wand was carved with intricate writings, which he could not read. But Lemmy wasn't sure why it glowed on his approach, and he had never seen a wand act in such a way. But from what his father had written, The Wand of Koopa as it was called was able to vanquish the undead within its proximity.

"And that's how he became King again..." Lemmy murmured to himself, but he suddenly laughed. "This is so ironic." Placing the diary back in his pocket, he reached for the wand.

* * *

He stopped walking. He felt something powerful, and it disappeared quickly. Was it from the ongoing battle back at the castle? Junior seemed to be making quick piecemeal of his other brothers and sister. No, it wasn't shock or abhorrence. It was desire, of prediction. It could have been Ludwig, considering his plan was to unfold shortly. Bowser invading the Mushroom Kingdom? Lemmy with his top secret battle plan? Or Iggy...?

Where the hell was Iggy?

"Hey Larry!" someone called. He snapped out of it and returned to reality. Standing on a beaten rocky path, Larry stood before Eternal Fortress Genlic, the towering black menace that helped shroud the moving vehicles and workers running this way and that making the final preparations. Strangely, the sky had cleared on his arrival and the sun shone brightly down upon him.

"Larry!" called the voice again. Larry turned and saw Kooper run up next to him. Wearing a noisy headset and fiddling with a clipboard full of papers, Kooper certainly had his hands full at the moment.

"Yes, the rest of that mushroom harvest has to go inside the 22nd storehouse." said Kooper. "Have Dalley take care of it." He sighed. "So damn busy! Anyway, we moved the Galaxy Core into the...well, what could be called the weapons room."

Larry started walking again. "The room that had a ton of Ludwig's stuff in it, right?"

"Yeah, that's the one. We haven't started hooking it up yet."

"Don't bother." replied Larry. "We need more hands setting up the defensive lines. Whatever the backlash is going to be, we have to be prepared for it."

"You think it's going to be that bad?" asked Kooper.

"The Kingdom is in a civil war right now. People will start migrating out, so we have to expect them coming from the north in swarms. That area is little defended and we really need something over there."

"Alright, I'll get some hands-"

"Larry! Larry!" came a cry. A Monty Mole had driven up next to him.

"Yes?"

"We just pulled up another pod that crashed a few miles from here. My boss says it's important."

Larry and Kooper looked at each other. Larry nodded before climbing into the jeep, which quickly drove off to the northeast towards the coast. It did not take long before they reached it. It was badly damaged and reeking with smoke, with signs that a fire had already occurred.

As soon as they pulled up, Larry felt a bad feeling grow in his gut. He climbed out and looked at the elderly Monty Mole, who simply bowed his head and refused to say a word. The look on his face told Larry everything. His breath grew heavy and he felt some doom hanging over him. But he told himself that he had made peace with the end.

He looked back at the pod and slowly walked towards it. It smelled horrid, a mixture of burning rubber and petroleum with a few other things. Reaching the door he hesitated, before grabbing the handle, slowly turning it and flung the door open.

A large plume of smoke immediately escaped and nothing could be seen at first. Larry's eyes adjusted to the darkness until he saw something laying close by. It took his mind a moment to register, but it was unmistakeable: a small arm of bone, with the remains of a dark fabric that dropped to the elbow.

Larry shut the door immediately and stood still for a long while. The Monty Moles looked at each other before the elder simply shook his head. He knew who it was, but could only wonder what Larry was going through.

Larry turned his head toward Genlic. The sounds of hammers and wheels. Of carts and chisels. And the sound of silence that encompassed it all...the sweetest sound never heard. Never heard.

The moles looked surprised when Larry suddenly chuckled to himself. He turned and with slow trudging footsteps, walked back towards the Moles. Without a word, he made a motion with his arm for them to follow him. Following orders, the trio walked back to the jeep and the younger Monty Mole climbed up to the drivers seat. Suddenly, Larry whisked around and, with wand in hand shot a large fiery fireball at the wrecked craft. It exploded in a monstrous flame that caught the eye of many workers nearby, who stopped and watched the flames roar into the sky.

"W-what are you doing?" asked the shocked Mole. But Larry merely grinned as he shot fireball after fireball at the wreck. He then held up his wand, which glowed a bright white, then unleashed a large flame that engulfed what was left.

"She wanted to be cremated when she died." Larry said suddenly. "I am doing the honors." When the flame finally ceased, nothing notable that was left could be seen. Larry, panting, simply stared at the sight, a past of his that he was just forced to bury. He did made peace to himself about this. But reality had hit him then. This was going to be worse than he thought.

He put his wand away and tried to calm himself down before quietly climbing back into the jeep. Without a word, they drove back to Genlic and dropped off Larry at the front gate. He merely waved as they drove off.

Larry stared at the gate of Genlic. Ashley was dead. She was someone he did at least care for, but he wondered how deep his feelings really went for her. That outburst was a little more than just caring. And something else was now over him, some doom he couldn't explain. His feet felt heavy and knew there was something he should do, but did not know where to go.

After staring at the gate for some time, he finally forced himself to walk through it past moving caravans and hoards of people. Most didn't even look at him; indeed, few ever learned of the true master of Genlic, other than the fact that he was a Koopa. His position was only known in the higher circles.

He diverted from the main hallway and walked over to a crevasse in a wall in the shape of a semicircle. Upon entering he floated upwards many floors quickly before stopping at a floor much higher than a few moments ago. He walked and looked at the many levels across from him: jeeps were driving cargo through the halls, which were large enough to support such vehicles. Most of the cargo was food and seeds, but also blankets and other bedroom items. Some seemed to be having trouble at the far end with greenhouse supplies as they tried to lift steel girders onto a higher level, since they wouldn't fit into the anti-gravity crevasses. It was, as he put it, an "organized madhouse."

But at that moment he didn't care too much. He could look at people scurrying back and forth all day, preparing for the worst. But if they weren't mentally prepared for it, would it even matter? He was reminded that many of the losses wouldn't come from physical death, but from insanity and he had to prepare for that. If vital hands went rouge, unable to deal with all the devastation, he needed people to fill in their shoes. The leaders, the pushers themselves had to be of sound mind to make sound judgments. While some of it could be determined early on, much of it could only be done when disaster would strike, which was in the moment.

He saw someone in the corner of his eye looking at him. Larry turned, but the person was gone. He wondered who it was, but in any event it snapped him back to reality and made him remember his destination: the throne room.

He walked and floated up several more levels until the familiar sight of the throne room was in view. The long table and chairs was where he had left them, and so was the throne in the back. He needed time to think of his situation, and also the situation of the Koopa Kingdom and of the war that raged there, despite the fact that Bowser was still alive.

Just then, the doors to the throne room slammed shut. Larry looked around but there was no one else in the vicinity. He pulled out his wand and thought of a way to open them again before something glowed beneath his feet. It was a pair of violet eyes that made up the face of a circular seal that he was standing on.

"Okay, and just what-" he never finished as the whole floor rumbled and moved upwards of what seemed like an endless shaft of nothing. But Larry looked behind him and saw the great view of the desert of Genlic to the south, dropping further and further beneath his feet. In the distance he discerned a large group of people heading northwards towards his location, no more than an hour away. They were probably refugees. Looking up he saw the sky had darkened considerably since he stepped through the gate, with clouds covering most of the sky.

The floor stopped moving with a thud.

"I cannot get past these doors." said a familiar voice. Larry felt a shiver down his shell, but forced himself to turn around. There she was, the goddess of death, returned in Boo form floating above the floor with the same pale face that he knew.

"H-hi, Ashley..." Larry started, a little freaked at the display.

"The spirits won't let me pass." she continued. "They say only the King of the Blood may enter."

Larry suddenly remembered what Iggy had told him of the 3 kings, moments before the Galaxy began to break up. He breathed in and knew that his doom was near. But what about Ashley? She was here for a reason. At length, Larry straightened himself out.

"Why did you come back?" asked Larry.

Ashley looked down. "I have many things to tell you...but that must wait. You must go now." She pointed at what first appeared to be a part of the wall, but Larry realized the design was in the shape of two black flower petals overlapping one another.

Larry looked at Ashley, but she was gone. "I will see you again." he said to himself. Her spirit was somehow residing in Genlic, and so were others. Ludwig had told him nothing about this. Maybe it was because he didn't have the wand at the time? That could explain the fluctuating weather as well.

With more questions than answers, Larry stepped forward to the doors. Like petals, they brushed back against the walls, revealing a strange room. Walking inside, he looked at the massive black orb above him that moved most of the ceiling, surrounded by a golden artistic holder of some kind, perhaps as a support. Colors swirled about inside, not unlike his own wand. Below this was a smaller orb that rested upon a pedestal jutting from the floor, but it was dark. The walls were open to the now cloudy skies, guarded by many sets of decorated pillars. Otherwise, the room resembled the rest of Genlic: a smooth and black glassy substance that covered everything. He almost didn't hear the "doors" fold back in to place behind him, but by the time he noticed the doors were closed.

"Welcome, King of the Blood." said a voice.

"Your presence was expected." said another. Above, Larry saw the colors in the larger globe materialize and take the form of a Boo before flowing around again. There seemed to be many of them.

"We have saved the spirit of your friend before it departed this plane." said one.

"Such a loss would be too inconvenient at this time." said another.

"What is this?" asked Larry. They seemed to talk in different voices.

"We are the consciousness of the last kings of the blood, at your service." they replied in unison.

"...what?"

"We have seen great tyrants rise and many incompetents fall."

"We hope we can guide you towards your destiny."

"With the wand returned from the masters of the family, the race may finally return to its full potential."

"...what? Isn't that Bowser and Kamek?" asked Larry.

"Kamek's deed is noteworthy, but his actions against the Koopa race cannot be forgotten."

"Now that the wand is free from the Magikoopa Council, the King of the Blood shall arise again."

"It has been over 300 years since the last king arose."

"Since then, the world has tumbled into imbalance."

"Yes, the King of the Earth has wielded his power without any regard to the sacred balance. The energies of materiality are in overabundance."

"Your initiation will help correct this disaster."

"And the world will become young as it once was."

"Wait—wait a minute. You guys are going too fast." sighed Larry. "I heard something about 3 kings before I came here, but I know nothing about them."

"You do not know the legend of the three kings?"

"Such is the grip of materiality, Prava. The bliss of ignorance."

"We shall impart the tale onto you. Behold!" The black globe shifted, and a birds eye view of the Mushroom world could be seen, centered over the Mushroom kingdom.

"The Koopa's were once not as evil as they are now."

"Evil is a byproduct of an overabundance of energy in one direction."

"This is what has happened to the Kings of the Earth."

"But in the beginning, this was not so."

The globe showed an overlay of three circles grouped into the shape of a triangle. It was a very ancient symbol, but it's original meaning had been lost ages ago.

"In the beginning was the forefather of your family, Koopa, descendant of the royalty of Naru. His inbreeding with the slave race that inhabited this planet caused consequences with his Naru overlords, who demanded they be controlled for fear of rebellion from their homeworld of the same name."

"The Destroyer." muttered Larry.

"Koopa created three wands in line of his master's demands. One controlling the people as a civilization in its policy, territory and governance: The Wand of the Earth. One controlling the purity of the bloodline of Koopa through the ages and head of the royal family upon this world: The Wand of the Blood. One guiding the soul's evolution up the pathways of light to become a greater race than their masters: The Wand of the Spirit."

"Each wand was originally entrusted into the care of a certain consciousness across various points on the planet."

"But as you can imagine, The Wand of the Spirit would eventually cause trouble for the Naru in time."

"That was the intent of Koopa, to make the race he had help spawn into something greater than the Naru themselves. And during one age when the Naru returned to collect the mineral they need to survive with, they found that their slave race had evolved far faster than they had anticipated."

"This was the time of Dantek, the last King of the Spirit. He intended to surpass his masters. However, due to the acts of the other two kings, a war was raged and his race had lost. They became hopelessly enslaved and the Wand of the Spirit was taken from him and was locked inside the Temple of Koopa upon Naru."

"The spawn of Koopa were reduced to slaves, even savages with no hope of escape. Dantek was allowed to live and made a plea to the heavens of their plight."

"The star spirits answered on the eve of the pole shift. Not only were the Naru wiped clean from the surface, but they were never allowed to walk the surface of this planet again."

"So through the ages past, the succeeding Kings of the Earth and Blood ruled and attempted to maintain a balance upon all."

"But with the loss of the Wand of the Spirit, spiritual evolution could not be achieved."

"As a result, the race has gone through never ending cycles of growth and destruction, often times at the onset of religion that proclaimed to know everything."

"Which was of course the evil of spirituality, as you might guess at this point."

"Okay, that's a lot to take in." Larry breathed. "So the Koopa's are considered evil because they're missing two of the wands...this includes Bowser, right?"

"Yes. The Magikoopa Council rose to prominence when Bowser was a child."

"They used the Wand of the Blood to control his actions, though they never unlocked its full potential."

"The bloodline does not run through their veins."

"Only those of Koopa's line may use the wands powers to their maximum extent."

"And only they can unlock their true potential, which you will do now."

"Hey wait-" Larry started, but the floor had started to rumble.

"Let the sacrament begin!" they all stated in unison. The sky quickly grew darker outside and he was surrounded by a pale blue light. When the light disappeared, he found himself standing outside on the roof of Genlic, looking at it's center where 3 pinnacles were standing. But they were raised upwards by a moving platform that rode beneath them, and underneath in the center was a glowing column of white light that spat out small bolts of lightning. The sky seemed to echo in response, with occasional thunder booming across the desert.

Feeling something, Larry pulled out his wand and found it glowing brightly. But when he looked back at that glowing column of brightness, he felt very strange as if he had fallen into a dream. Reality became a blur, the passage of time not so linear. Before he knew it, he had actually walked several steps forward towards the glowing light. He tried to do something with his wand, but soon realized that he had lost control of his limbs. He thought he heard someone call out for him, but he could not shout back: no voice came. All he could do was watch as his legs stumbled up the steps that led into the light.

Lightning began to streak across the sky, and at the base of Genlic itself a soft white light began to glow within its glassy walls, something that stunned the workers and helpers who had no idea what was occurring. Kooper looked up and saw the display for himself and wondered what the hell Larry was doing.

But none of this was apparent to Larry at that moment, who came close enough to that light to touch it. He stopped for several moments and simply stared at the display.

"What am I?" he thought before finally reaching his arm into the column of light.

Immediately, the glow within Genlic intensified into a brilliant light that encompassed the entire complex. That light converged on Larry's position which resulted in the pillar of light exploding, rocking the complex and shooting straight up into the sky. Everyone nearly fell on their backs at the display but were too scared to move, having no idea what to do.

The light mingled with the clouds which created a monstrous electrical storm that began to send thick, white bolts through the air. Some began to strike the ground with loud explosions, leaving small craters in their wake. People finally started to panic and clamored into through the front gate with a roar of noise, trying to escape the electric storm from hell.

Meanwhile, inside that white light, Larry was on the ground, crying in agonizing pain as his body twisted and transformed, not aware of what was happening. Eventually his cries ceased, and darkness overtook him. It was in this moment that the pillar of light that stretched into the sky suddenly shot downward, compounding upon itself until it reached Larry's body and all of the light and all of the bolts went out with a loud shockwave that shook in all directions.

And it was the shockwave that woke him. He stared at the black floor, too shocked to move at that moment. Reality seemed clear again and he sensed the normal passage of time, but something was off. He moved his arm to pick himself up, but stopped immediately when he saw it. It wasn't his arm. It was a muscular monstrosity, enormous in size with sharp pointy claws at the end of an equally large paw.

"What am I?" he said aloud, but heard his voice had grown deeper. "What? Could it be...?" He reached for his head and felt them: two curved horns protruding upwards. Not seeing his reflection in the floor, Larry quickly got up and moved next to one of the pillars and stood there in awe. The horns were there, just like his dads. His big blue eyes had narrowed considerably and his snout had become host to many more fangs than his previous four. His pale blue hair had lengthened all around. In fact, so did his height: he was at least twice as tall than he once was, maybe even three times as tall though not nearly as round as his father. While admiring the rest of his muscular physique, Larry came to the realization what all this meant. Smiling, he took his wand.

"I am..." He thrusted his wand into the sky. "King Larry Koopa!" He laughed hard to himself, not caring who was watching him. The new power that he felt running through his veins was amazing compared to his weaker self. He felt like he could do anything.

The clouds had started to break up and a view of the setting sun was seen to the west, glowing above the oceans waves. After what just occurred it was all eerily quiet, save for the ocean waves that crashed beneath the cliffs of Genlic.

"Larry!"

It was that voice from before. It was faint and far, but somehow he heard it as if it was up close. Larry turned towards the south and found a number of people on the ground below him huddled next to themselves. He realized that it was the same people he had seen when he was going up the elevator.

But he turned to the source of the voice. Out of all the group, she was the only one standing and staring up at him in awe. Whether it was the wand or himself, the view suddenly closed in on her down below. She was wearing a black leather long coat with a black baseball cat, sporting a yellow W. But her blue eyes and red hair gave her away.

"Larry..." said Mona, still staring at him. "...what in the hell just happened, and how did you get so...big?"

Larry smirked.


	18. Epilogue

_Entry 23_

_It feels strange writing this now, looking back on what was my normal life. _

_To be honest, when that war started we had no idea what would happen to any of us. We knew the day would come when Bowser would pass, most of us didn't like to imagine it. If I had the choice, I'd still be hacking websites and laundering funds for my little stash, but I have bigger things to do now. _

_The spirits tell me being King of the Blood doesn't just mean running a massive fortress and looking at far away places whenever you feel like it. That would be great, but since the world is under more than one catastrophe it's somewhat difficult to just watch it happen and not do a thing about it. _

_As I've already written in this journal, I've transformed the Eternal Fortress Genlic into a survival shelter. Apparently this is nothing original, so the previous kings tell me. This has been done in the past with great success, with the survivors pushing outward to irrigate the land surrounding us. That explains why all the soil is rocky and dry around here, besides the wars that took place. It's one of the reasons why I have everyone building something inside the fortress rather than without. There's also the Internet, while one of the greatest inventions brought from Earth, it is nearly a limitless source of information for the common goer and they know how impregnable Genlic really is. I have set up a number of defenses, hopefully to stall any who seek a residence at this place. I was warned by Ludwig of throngs waiting outside my doors, and at this point it has already started._

_Speaking of him, I worry a lot about my other siblings. For many of them, they're on the road to a dark place though they do not know what they face. The kings tell me of a Society, decended from those of Naru that have used the Wand of the Blood in the past to control the Koopa kings and their citizens in the past, and that our race were not as wholly evil as it is now. Now that the King of the Blood has returned, their control has weakened and they are seeking a more direct route to enslave us. It is painful to watch all of this unfold, with my siblings having no clue as to what awaits them._

_Indeed, the greatest tragedy may be Ludwig himself. I do not know if he sees the path ahead of him, but it's not as straght as he imagines it. He must understand that Junior received the Wand of the Earth for a reason. Not for his inexperience or his bad temper, but because he's easily malleable by those who surround him, just like how Bowser was. That's what they want. Except in Junior's case, this was all decided before birth, having been spliced with Bowser's genes and with ritual ceremonies of his decided destiny. I do not approve of it and would rather have him offed, but doubtless the Society will contest this. _

_Lemmy is in an interesting position. He could wreck a lot of havok with the Wand of Koopa, which is said to be the most destructive wand on the planet. But he needs to know how to use it. In any event, his march through the Valley of the Koopas will be completely unexpected by most, perhaps even the Soceity itself. Who would expect a fleet to fly down from the north pole? _

_Roy is definitely caught between a rock and a hard place. With his back to the sea, he now knows his attack on Junior was too early and must rely on support from his other siblings. He was lucky to have Wendy come and help him, which has kept Junior busy. I don't he's even noticed Morton's tanks stroll up to the castle to begin their siege on it. Morton could easily take the castle now that Junior's forces are outside of it, barring intervention by the Society of course. _

_And Iggy. _

_Being King of the Blood means being able to scry the movements of your entire family at any given time. The Seat of the World helps that, located at the top of Genlic. Let's you zoom in on any family member you're thinking about. You can also see them in your mind if you really focus on it. For most of my siblings, this is not an issue and I can see what they're doing quite clearly. This is not the case for Iggy. _

_When I think of Iggy's movements, I see nothing but random flashes of scenes, seemingly unrelated to each other. When I try to discover his location on the planet, unlike the rest of my siblings where I can see a fixed location, Iggy is seemingly everywhere. Even when I try to use the globe in the king's chamber to find my siblings, I can see their aura's clearly marked whereas Iggy's aura encompasses the entire surface. The whole thing is confusing and I have no idea why it's happening. _

_Anyway, Genlic itself is coming along very well. People seem to like the agriculture. Maybe it's because Mona recently opened up a pizza shop on the third basement floor. I didn't know we had so many tomatoes, but as long as there's a surplus I don't have a problem with it. _

_Kooper, my Director General says that considering all of the people we had to integrate, that we did a very good job housing them all. People seem to have taken up the rest of the work, cleaning and doing what needs to be done. Of course, we have some slackers but that's not very surprising. _

_Of course, my original question still stands: how will they act in an emergency? Only time will tell I guess._

_At this point, I have an idea of what to do with my siblings once this war pans out and who will become the next King (as I decide who this will be), but I think that's still a ways out. All I can do is wait for now._

_CCLIV Larry Koopa_

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE

To all of those who have read this far: Thank you! I do appreciate those who are left, as I know most people do not have the time or the patience for a story of this caliber. This is not to mention the setting and characterization of the characters, which is fairly far removed from the original Mario-esque ideal. But I am a pioneer of sorts and love to show people something they've never seen before. I hope this tale was satisfying at least to this extent.

Truth be told, this is not the real ending of the story, only this specific arc covering the space station known as the Galaxy. I could have continued this, but felt that the original plot had already ended and the story had morphed into something else altogether. This new story arc will be covered in the sequel "Legend of the Three Kings."

Much of my inspiration comes from ZetaTalk, The Secret, Zeitgeist and much more than I cannot list here.

Once again, thank you for reading!


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